Elsewhere

What about book stores outside my hometown? I remember a few. When my grandparents lived in Las Cruces, we’d spend time there every summer and usually go to the mall at some point. In my early teen years, that meant the Loretto Mall, a single-story blah edifice that I think later became a center for offices of various kinds. I remember a bookstore there, name lost to history, kind of quaint and with a wooden bridge as decor in the middle of the store. I don’t recall any particular books I purchased there, but I’m sure I did. Later, the shiny new Mesilla Valley Mall came along with two - two! - bookstores. I think one was a Waldenbooks (remember those?), but I don’t remember the other. I don’t think it was a Borders but I could be mistaken, if Borders was around back then. Again, I only visited them on occasion and later when I went to New Mexico State, so my memories aren’t as vivid as some of the other stores I remember. The campus bookstore was always a disappointment since they only carried textbooks and the required reading for English lit classes. Now the campus has a Barnes & Noble with “real” books and I’ve visited there are few times over the past couple of decades when I’m in town. It makes me completely jealous and wishful it’d been around when I went to school there. Probably for the best, though, since I didn’t exactly have a lot of disposable income.