Bookstore Heaven and Hippie Hell

Bob feels guilty because he hasn't cut the grass. He got out the plug to the lawn mower and opened the back door. Just then it began to rain. "I guess me cutting the grass is not part of God's plan," he said. So we went to Berkeley. First we ate at our favorite naan place, but the naan wasn't up to standard. Then we went to Moe's Bookstore. I had $20 dollars worth of credit there and wanted to buy a particular cookbook. "We're all sold out," the clerk informed me. "We have to wait for a shipment from the publisher."

I never liked Moe's much, anyway. I rarely go there, but I used to love Cody's located just a couple of doors down. That was back in the golden days when that stretch of Telegraph Avenue was Bookstore Heaven and Hippie Hell. The street used to be crowded with crazed-looking people panhandling, selling tie-died T-shirts, incense sticks, jewelry, marijuana, hard drugs or whatever -- or just wandering through the streets raving and frothing at the mouth, declaiming poetry or prophecies, protesting, passing out pamphlets, shooting up or passed out on the sidewalks. The street is still like that, but it's no longer as crowded, scary and colorful as it once was.

A visit to Cody's was worth the fight through the crowds. You could find whatever printed matter you were looking for there. Besides, it was a happening place. The owners held weekly readings by interesting poets, novelists and anyone else who was someone or conversely, no one. It didn't matter whether famous or obscure; poets, madmen, dreamers, feminists, communists, gurus and best-selling authors; they all passed through Cody's doors.

With competition from Borders and Barnes and Nobles, followed by Amazon and the Internet, Cody's could no longer make it. They moved to two different locations before they finally went out of business, but their Telegraph Avenue building still stands empty on the corner. I felt sad when I passed its dark deserted windows. Even the street made me sad, a shabby shadow of its former raucous self.