Middletown Heritage Day, September 26, 2009

My neighbor and friend, Barbara, let me repair her mother’s Joy of Cooking as a demonstration throughout the day. As a business owner, she’d done lots of trade shows and helped me enormously. She created an attractive display of repaired books and staffed the booth with me. My husband, Darryl, put up the awning and the plastic sheets that protected the books when the rain came in. He loaded and unloaded our van, and brought me food and coffee. (I ate and drank away from my workspace!) I was able to relax and enjoy the day because of their support.

As I worked on her book, Barbara and I explained to folks what I was doing. I chatted with people and handed out a bibliography of books about bookbinding and resources for book-repair supplies. Many people took my business card. Although exhibitors had to close down early due to rain, it was a successful day. I hope to participate next year!
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I work part-time at a large independent bookstore filled with wonderful out-of-print and antiquarian books. Last week my best customer of the day came in just as I was clocking out. I’d say he was about nine years old; he could barely see over the counter.
“Do you have any really old books, like before…. before 2009?”
I assured him that we did, and took him to the juvenile collectible section. “Some of these books are a hundred years old,” I told him and his sister. They did a lot of exclaiming as they found the copyright dates. He showed me a tattered early-1900s book and asked if we could lower the price. I advised him to ask the manager.
This kid is talented!