It’s the summer of 1983. I can’t find work in Fort Collins. I can’t find work in day care, even though I had established a group day care home in Michigan that was recognized for excellence. No one will hire me as a beekeeper despite my experience and completing a two year commercial beekeeping program through Ohio State University. Aced the preliminaries for work at the Post Office, but no job available. Applied at the library. Applied at the vet school. Nothing but a job serving ice cream, which would have netted one dollar an hour by the time I paid the babysitter.
So my sister and I decided on a whim to open a bookstore. All summer and fall we bought books. We hired contractors to build quality bookshelves (which I still use). We did all the sanding and staining ourselves. Rented 147 West Oak Street Plaza for $350 and put it all together. Specializing in children’s books, we named the store Toad Hall Books. My sister sometimes worked in the store on her days off while I took care of my small homestead or spent time with my daughter.
At this Oak Street location I sponsored lectures, poetry readings, open mike nights, a Trivial Pursuits party, wine and cheese tasting events, and displays of art by local artists. Nissa, the first of a long line of bookstore cats, moved in. She greeted all the customers. She also greeted them in the morning at the front window. Soon we had to put up a bar to keep her from knocking all the display books on the floor when she said hello to passersby.
One of our advertising “gimmicks” was to hire a friend, dressed in a period costume, to walk around downtown with a sandwich board.
We were there only a year when our devious landlord raised the rent and drove me out to look for a new space…
The Eclectic Reader 