Signing the Papers

Springtime 1979. "Over my dead body," I said to M when he suggested buying our favorite little bookstore in "No Man's Land" across from Lake Michigan. I liked browsing and shopping in the store--I didn't want to own it, for heaven's sake.

August 19, 1979. Well, I was very much alive and well as M and I signed the papers which gave us ownership of 890 square feet of retail space in a toney shopping plaza rich in architecture and local lore, even family lore. In 1927 my father had wooed my mother right across the street among the ruins of Vista del Lago. In the late 1950's I had smooched boys in the balcony of what until 1966 had been the Teatro del Lago. In the late 1960s M and I had shared secluded brunches in the private boothes of San Pedro's. And now we owned the bookstore lock, stock, and barrel, which for us meant all the fixtures, all the books, all the debts.
Labels: Bookcase, Plaza del Lago, Village Bookstore