Flashback Friday--Used Books and Arbys

Growing up, my family did not have a lot of money. For about 5 years our family of 5 lived in a small two-bedroom house in Florida, with no air conditioning. But, we made our own fun. My favorite outings were going to Arby's and the used book store with my mother and sister. Every few weeks there would be a coupon in the paper for a full meal from Arby's for $1.99. You got a small roast beef sandwich, fries, and a turnover. No drink was included, so we stuck with water. To this day, I almost never order a soda in a restaurant. First of all, I frequently drink water anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. But I also can't bring myself to do it financially. At a lot of restaurants, a soda is $2. If my husband and I both get one, it's $4. Tack on a 20% tip, and that brings the total to almost $5! That's more than double the cost of my entire childhood Arby's meal. I can still remember my mother saying we could go, but we had to order water and we couldn't complain about it. Deal!

But, I digress. So, my mother, sister, and I would go to Arby's. I don't recall my father ever joining us. I think maybe my brother would occassionally come along. But for the most part, it was just the girls. We'd sit in our favorite booth and enjoy a leisurely meal. Then, we would go to the used bookstore. I am sure "the used bookstore" had a proper name, but I have no idea what it was. I never thought that was odd until just now, as I am typing this. Anyway, the place was huge! It was probably close to the size of a modern Barnes and Noble. The picture above is one I found after a google search; apparently I am not the only one with fond memories of BookTraders (that person actually remembered the name). They had a large children's section, with lots of treasures. They also had magazines, thousands of records, and, my personal favorite, a 0.25 table. We could spend hours in that place! By the end of the evening, we would each walk away with a full stomach and several "new" books. The best part was that you could return your old books for credit, which we always did. The whole night out, including dinner, probably cost less than $10.

We later graduated to Fazzoli's, which became our restaurant for awhile, but we always loved going to the used bookstore. It was an incredibly sad day when I learned that they had sold about half their space and condensed. I guess the downtown revitalization efforts made the property too valuable.