Friday, May 11, 2007

Wallowing in Nostalgia

Today I found myself with a couple of hours to kill in Denton, Texas, where I lived for two years in the Seventies while attending North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). So I decided to visit all my old haunts -- the ones that still exist, anyway. First, though, I went to Recycled Books, for which I feel no nostalgia at all since it wasn't there when I lived in Denton. From there, though, I walked down the block to an antique mall that now occupies the space where Fultz News Agency used to be. Fultz was a huge newsstand/bookstore right on the downtown square where I bought most of my comics, paperbacks, and SF and mystery digests when I lived in Denton. I walked along the right-hand wall of the building and could tell exactly where the comic books used to be.

I ate lunch in the same Jack-in-the-Box where I stopped nearly every day when I walked from class back to my apartment. The menu has changed, of course; the building hasn't, or at least not much. Just down the block is Voertman's Bookstore, which, being right across the street from the NTSU campus, did a booming business in textbooks. But in the Seventies it was also a regular bookstore with a good selection of new paperbacks. That part is gone now. School supplies and textbooks are all that remain. Just beyond it used to be Reader's World, a small bookstore where I bought several of the Zebra editions of Robert E. Howard books, as well as some of those Phantom novels based on the comic strip character. Reader's World opened a store in Fort Worth which I patronized heavily during the early days of my marriage. I bought a ton of comics and paperbacks there, as well as issues of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE when I was publishing regularly in MSMM. The original Reader's World space in Denton is now some sort of counter-culture shop. (I didn't know such things still existed.) Just around the corner was the barber shop I patronized occasionally -- very occasionally, since in those days I had long hair and a Fu Manchu mustache.

All right, now that you've all stopped laughing from visualizing that . . . I drove past the apartment house where I lived. It's a little more seedy and rundown now but still looks remarkably the same. Nearby is the convenience store where I bought junk food, comics, and WRITER'S DIGEST. Why a little hole-in-the-wall convenience store stocked WRITER'S DIGEST on their magazine rack, I have no idea, but I'm glad they did, because it was from market listings in those issues that I finally started submitting stories.

By now I'm sure you've gotten the idea that I spent a lot of my college years reading comics, paperbacks, and magazines. What better preparation could there be for sitting in a room and typing for the next thirty-plus years? Actually, though, I did do a few things that normal college kids do . . . although we won't go into that here. I enjoyed my time in Denton today, and if you've read this far, I appreciate your indulgence.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Fu Manchu moustache? We demand photos!

I remember the Fultz newsstand well. It's the only place I ever knew of that didn't rip the covers off all paperbacks and send them back to the publisher. Instead, a lot of the older ones were kept in a rack in the back of the place. I bought a lot of those.

You didn't mention the Student Art Theater, also known as The Rathole. I suppose it was gone by the time you got to Denton.

James Reasoner said...

If any such photos exist, I don't know where they are. (Thank goodness!)

Yeah, I bought a lot of those old books at Fultz's, too. I know where the Student Art Theater was, but it was closed and boarded up when I lived there. I went to quite a few movies at the old theater on the other side of the square, which is still there but doesn't show movies anymore. I believe one of the local little theater groups uses it to put on plays.

Unknown said...

Okay, if no photos, what did you buy at Recycled? (I believe there was a big department store in that building when I lived in Denton.)

I went to a lot of movies in that other theater, too.

Charles Gramlich said...

I second the demand for photos. Surely Livia has some. Sometimes nostalgia can be fun, especially where books are concerned.

James Reasoner said...

In answer to Bill's question, at Recycled I bought a couple of John Dickson Carr paperbacks, THE PROBLEM OF THE WIRE CAGE and THE ARABIAN NIGHTS MURDER (both featuring Dr. Gideon Fell); two trade paperback reprints of comic book miniseries, THE THING: IDOL OF MILLIONS (The Thing being my all-time favorite Marvel character) and CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, a writer and artist team whose work I like a lot; a collection of essays by Mark Evanier, the title of which I don't recall; and a CD called ULTRA-LOUNGE: THE CRIME SCENE, a compilation of music from various movies and TV shows from the Fifties and Sixties like DRAGNET and PETER GUNN.

As for Livia having any photos of me from the old days . . . shhhhh. We don't want to give her any ideas.

Livia J Washburn said...

Sorry I really don't have any photos of James from that time period. We went out on one date before he cut all the excess hair off.

Anonymous said...

I grew up in Denton and remember Fultz news very well. Although I am a few years younger than you are, when I was a kid in the mid-seventies, my parents would always stop off at Fultz news on the way home from church every sunday morning and we'd all browse the racks at Fultz news for an hour or so. All of my early reading material was purchased there. I still vividly remember the smell of the store. In fact, I stumbled across your blog while Googling Fultz News to see if it still existed. I figured the big bookstores would have put it out of business by now. That's a shame as it was a real gem of a store.

Voertman's was also a favorite store of mine. They had a great selection of art supplies. My mom was a student at NTSU when you were and I spent a lot of time browsing those stores while waiting for her to get out of class.

Many Sundays we also would stop at the Rudra restaurant a few blocks South of the square, and eat some fine middle Eastern food. The Rudra was my introduction to middle Eastern food; a relationship that has blossomed into a true love affair over the years. I wonder if it is still there.

James Reasoner said...

Phillip,

I'm glad my post brought back some good memories for you. I don't know about Rudra. I'll check it out the next time I'm in Denton.

JohnBoy57 said...

I lived in an apartment above Readers World in 76-77. I remember the Peaches record (and head) shop nearby and a beer/wine bar called The Porch, where my friends and I would drink "hard lemonade" while swinging on one of their porch swings. I was a very young gay guy coming out and found Denton to have a fantastic art community where all were accepted. I will always consider Denton my home-town, since that is where I became me.
Not sure how to post photos, but I have some great ones of Texas Original Headshop and other neighborhood haunts. Livia, who is the James you're looking for photos of? Erwin perhaps? Got lots.