There Was Always Time to Read - Glen Enloe's Blog

<P>(first published&nbsp;in Star Magazine)</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I suspect that it is gone now. I haven’t had the heart to drive by it, but it is no longer listed in the telephone book. What was it? It was the old Time to Read Book Store. It had moved to its final location to make its last stand a number of blocks from its original site just blocks down from Municipal Auditorium in the once thriving heart of downtown <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place>Kansas City</st1:place></st1:City>. In its glory days in the 1950s and early 1960s, it was the closest thing to a <st1:State><st1:place>New York</st1:place></st1:State> style newsstand that <st1:City><st1:place>Kansas City</st1:place></st1:City> had at the time. They would always enticingly put fresh editions of newspapers (when it wasn’t raining) from all across the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> just outside the door on the sidewalk. Once inside, you’d find more newspapers plus a vast and diversified array of magazines, paperbacks and books that you couldn’t find anywhere else in the city.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I first discovered Time to Read (remember its little flashing neon sign?) in the ‘50s when going Christmas shopping once a year with my mother. Later, I would always make sure we dropped by the store on our way to watch one of the monthly wrestling matches we went to via the city bus at Municipal Auditorium. Those were exciting times for me as I anticipated that night’s event with Dick the Bruiser, Bobo <st1:country-region><st1:place>Brazil</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the Sheik, Yukon Eric or Cowboy Bob Ellis. Yet of equal anticipation was our stop at the Time to Read Book Store. I would always have to buy the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine or Mad Monsters or some other new horror or wrestling magazine. While my mother was pondering detective magazines, I would glance at the girly magazines (but, of course, not buy). Sometimes I would leaf through a new collection of strips from Peanuts before finally deciding what to buy. Usually, my budget would only allow for a monster magazine or two. Even so, it was hard to tear ourselves away before it was time to walk up the hill to the matches.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Yes, those were great times. I still recall with fondness the strong smell of cigar smoke in the book store and the lovable but grumpy old men as they chomped on their stogies behind the counter and took my money for those magazines. Urban renewal and new, tall buildings forced the Time to Read Book Store to move. I visited it a number of times as an adult, but somehow it just wasn’t the same. The times and I had changed. It guess it’s no longer time to read, but time to move on.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp;</SPAN></P> <P>&nbsp;</P>

Vince Suzadail Jr. Date: 2/2/2009 8:11:00 AM We had Moser's News Agency. They had the baseball cards, sponge balls and comics. Newpapers from surrounding towns and Philly and New York. They had paperbacks (I loved Spillane and Richard S Prather). Wrestling was fun back then also, not the smut garbage we see today. I liked Don McClarity. Everyone loved Bruno and Haystacks. Dr. Jerry Graham was the bad guy. The animal George Steele was fun to watch. Great memories. Vince Login to Reply

Debbie Guzzi Date: 2/1/2009 5:55:00 PM We will always need book and always need to read. For myself I am compiling an apocalyptic library; when all the power goes, I own how to books on everything from canning to medicine with herbs, to house building. The public may come to the realization in a very painful way that perhaps it would have been better NOT to have all their information stored in "the web". Light & Love Debbie Login to Reply