The Uncles
The word today at Ragtag Daily Prompt is novels!
Once upon a time in 1974, on a somewhat out of the way corner in south Minneapolis (4th Avenue South and Franklin Avenue East for any cartophiles out there), there was a bookstore called Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore. It was tiny, it was cramped, it smelled of musty old books, it was heaven. The manager of the store, Scott Imes, was an amazing person and I could probably write a blog just about him, and I mention him only briefly here now because writing anything about Uncle Hugo’s doesn’t seem right without mentioning him. Smarter than an army of librarians and a memory that was scary. As fate would have it, I worked with his stepson in the early 2000’s.
The Uncle was successful and six years later, another Uncle, Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Bookstore, opened its doors not too far from its brother. The bookstores saw tremendous success and in 1984 they moved into one larger storefront in a busier section of town (2864 Chicago Avenue South) and all was good in the realm. A new destination was born. Or reborn?
The Uncles’ Chicago Avenue LocationBelow is a picture inside of Uncle Hugo’s.
Part of a store aisle.The picture is one small section, maybe about 25%, of one aisle. Aisle after aisle was the same as what you see in that picture. Books on top of books and boxes of books on top of more boxes of books. Stacks on stacks of books in every direction. And that’s just the used books area. What reader hasn’t at one point or another in their life fantasized about a room that looked like this? When you walked up and down the aisles of Uncle Hugo’s and Uncle Edgar’s you couldn’t help but marvel.
In May of 2020 Uncle Edgar’s and Uncle Hugo’s were burned to the ground during the riots shortly after the George Floyd murder. There was no reason to target a bookstore. A landmark. An independent business. But it was a crazy time and there you were. It took a little over two years but the owner, Don Blyly, eventually reponed in a new location at 2716 East 31st Street, and Uncle Hugo’s, the oldest independent science fiction bookstore in the country, and Uncle Edgar’s, were back! The new location doesn’t have the charm that the original two locations did, but I felt the same thing after the first move so don’t listen to me. I think that’s just my sentimentality.
So there you go, novels galore.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZLkmYOGZHzE&list=RDZLkmYOGZHzE&start_radio=1
#books #Bookstores #Fiction #IndependentBookstores #Minneapolis #Reading #ScottImes #TalkingHeads #UncleEdgarSMysteryBookstore #UncleHugoSScienceFictionBookstore
