The Paperback Trade

I always walked to grade school because I lived less than two minutes away. Out the back gate, half way down the alley, turn right, down another alley for a half a block, cross the street, and enter the school. Very easy. It was a longer walk at the end of the day because we had to line up (two by twos!) and walk up to the corner of George and South Streets, escorted by the eighth grade safety patrol boys. (Always and only boys.) That seemed like a death march some days; we just wanted to get home and that route was a detour.

High school was more of a challenge at 1.3 miles. A bit too far to walk in the morning, we arranged to ride with my cousin Bill’s neighbor, George, who got a ride from his friend, Cosimo. It cost us a whopping 50 cents a week for gas.

Often on the ride was a girl named Vanetia, nicknamed Vannie. There was nothing special about her; except for a happy demeanor and a big smile, she was like all the other older girls at school with the same general hairstyle (think 1970s straight, long, center part) and the Catholic school uniform.

Tear off those calendar pages as we advance a few years. I was an avid reader, and devoured books from the local bookstore as well as the library. I then heard about a new store opening in a school converted into a retail space. It was called The Paperback Trade, and they bought and sold used books. Romance novels made up the largest inventory, but I would find enough science fiction books to keep me satisfied.

But imagine my surprise when, on my first visit, I meet the proprietor, who turns out to be Vanetia! She thought it would be a good business to have, and so it was. She began in one large room, and eventually expanded into more. Buying books for 1/3 the cover price and then selling them for 1/2 price, with enough volume, turned out to be an excellent business model.

I stopped going when I left town for school. In the intervening time, Vanetia would sell the business to someone else, who would relocate it to a strip mall in the suburbs. When visiting my mother, we would have to make a trip to the Paperback Trade so she could swap out her read books for more. But the new owner had ambitions beyond just selling used books as Vanetia had. She had a play area, mostly for her son (who was named after a character in Sherlock Holmes, poor kid!), and dreamed of adding a café area. Unfortunately her demeanor also did not match Vanny’s. When you entered you wouldn’t get a welcome greeting, and on check out no grateful smile. It seemed it was just a business for her, something to get her out of the house. And the trade-in amount changed, so you always had to pay extra for the books you were buying. (Often a credit slip had been enough.) Eventually, my mother decided it just wasn’t worth going, and I wonder how many other people felt the same.

Is it still there? A google search turns up a blank Yelp page and something called Betsy’s Bookshelf, which may be in the same location as The paperback Trade. I expect it doesn’t match what Vanny had created so many years ago.