A Wonderful Place To Explore

We’d just had a wonderful fish dinner in Mebane, North Carolina and were driving through town on our way West when I saw the small sign in front of this huge warehouse. “5th Street Books.” at 202 N. 5th Street .Just 2 miles from Interstate 40.

My wife Jean was driving and I called out, “Turn around. Let’s take a look at that bookstore. Somebody told me about a year ago I should visit it.” Jean was eager to get to the big mall down the road but she patiently turned around. We parked near the door and she said, “I’ll just wait for you in the car.” I figured I’d just run in, take a quick look and if it was interesting I could return at my leisure. I read a sign that said, “All books 99 cents.” Fifteen minutes later I was back to our car and I had purchased just one book. They had a sign up that listed some dates for each month. For instance, February 19th, 20th and 21st. All books 25 cents.  And another “Every Wednesday, Senior Citizens, 5 free books.”  They had thousands and thousands and more thousands of books, over 25,000 and growing daily.   Paperbacks. Hard Covers. Shelf after shelf of cookbooks. A huge children’s section.  I wrote February 19th on my calendar. Take a five minute online tour.

Oh yes, Free coffee. Maybe I will see you there.