Oh, we had Superman and Batman and the JLA, of course, and later on Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four came along to join them, but there were all sorts of other comic books as well” war comics, crime comics, western comics, romance comics for the girls, movie and television tie-ins, strange hybrids like Turok, Son of Stone (Indians meet dinosaurs, and call them honkers). In those days, the superheroes had not yet reached the same level of dominance in comics that they presently enjoy. Neither one recognized the existence of genre. The comic book racks and the paperback spinner had more in common than mere proximity. My allowance was a dollar a week, and figuring out how I was going to split that up between ten-cent comic books (when the price went up to twelve cents, it really blew the hell out of my budget), thirty-five-cent paperbacks, a candy bar or two, the infrequent quarter malt or ice cream soda, and an occasional game of Skee-Ball at Uncle Milty's down the block was always one of the more agonizing decisions of the week, and honed my math skills to the utmost. The book section was a wire spinner rack, taller than I was, that stood right next to the comics.perfect placement for me, once my reading had expanded beyond funny books. When I was growing up in Bayonne's projects, my local candy store was a little place on the corner of First Street and Kelly Parkway, across the street from the waters of the Kill Van Kull. Some carried groceries and some didn't, some had soda fountains and some didn't, some offered fresh baked goods in the morning and would make you a deli sandwich all day long, some sold squirt guns and hula hoops and those pink rubber balls we used for our stickball games.but all of them sold newspapers, magazines, comic books, and paperbacks. Every candy store was a little different from every other. (If you wanted a hardcover, you could take the bus into New York City.) Most of those places were what we called candy stores back then, but Hershey bars and Milky Ways and penny candy were the least of what they sold. There were plenty of places to buy books, so long as what you wanted was a paperback. Which is not to say there was no place to buy a book. Martin There were no bookstores in Bayonne, New Jersey, when I was a kid. Introduction Stories from the Spinner Rack by George R.
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