Late this morning, we ventured down to Berryville, Arkansas, to meet my oldest son’s girlfriend’s family. So of course I wanted to stop by the It’s a Mystery BookStore again (we visited it three and a half years ago). But it was closed for the week as the proprietrix was visiting family. So we had an hour to kill before lunch, so we had a cup of coffee and an appetizer at the Ozark Cafe (which might be the only place in Berryville that takes credit cards).
As the weather was nice, we took a little stroll around the square. We stopped in a gift shop on Springfield Street (strangely enough, it was on the highway that kinda sorta went in Springfield’s direction, so it might have been named for the place it went like Appleton, Fond du Lac, Beloit, and other roads in Wisconsin are named). It was odd: they started calling this “Small Business Saturday,” but very few of the small businesses in Berryville were open.
We also stopped in at a thrift shop across the street from It’s a Mystery, and it had books and other media. I bought a couple of records, and my beautiful wife bought a couple of books.
I got four videocassettes:
- The Patriot starring Mel Gibson so I can fully revisit the fin de siècle Mel Gibson movies.
- Paris Holiday, a Bob Hope comedy. Weird that I’m seeing so many of them in the wild this year (I bought a couple others in June.
- Grumpier Old Men, which I can watch since I saw the first one almost a year ago exactly. And this one has Sophia Loren.
- Sink the Bismarck which does not have an exclamation point, unlike the book.
I also got three records:
- Sea of Dreams by Nelson Riddle. I might have bought it for the cover alone, but it is Nelson Riddle.
- The Last Dance… for Lovers Only by Jackie Gleason. The last time I was in Berryville, I bought some Jackie Gleason on CD. It might become a personal tradition.
- Hurðaskellir & Stúfur Staðnir Að Verki by Magnús Ólafsson + Þorgeir Ástvaldsson + Laddi + Bryndís Schram. My first Christmas album in Icelandic. And probably the only, although who knows? I have recently acquired (or actually, I just unboxed) a couple of German language Christmas albums from my mother-in-law. So who can say if I’ll ever come up with another collection of hymns or something.
The thrift store did not take credit cards, but that was okay as the total was like seven dollars, and as it was Berryville, I brought some cash.
Which turned out to be a good thing, as the Italian restaurant where we met the potential future in-laws did not take credit cards, either.
I am absolutely not kidding about carrying cash in Berryville. One of five places we’ve visited have taken credit cards. Maybe two of six, as it did not come up at the gift shop.
