I wish I could return to the Scene of the Crime!

    When I posted yesterday's blog on my Facebook page, I did so mentioning a bookstore that no longer exists, and commenting on what someone else wrote about The Scene of the Crime mystery bookstore wife agreed "It WAS the best bookstore, ever!"
      Scene of the Crime was new back in the mid 1970's, or at least to me and as time moved forward more of these brick and mortal specialty stores arose.  There on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, California was this "ma and pa" bookstore, run by Ruth and Al Windfeldt.  Ruth always wore a Victorian ladies outfit and had a massive amount of hair perfectly coiffed and sitting upon her head, like some enormous Derby bonnet. The store had the look of a library you might find tucked away at Downton Abbey, and there was a "nook" in the rear left of the store where they kept all of the Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes related works, and was a place I was sure to go on my visits there.
   My mother took me in there for the first time because they realized that I was addicted to reading.  Due to poor grades I had my comic books and television watching privileges removed and for a 12 year old this was tough going, so to survive I began searching the house for something to read.  In my dad's study he had lots of paperbacks and it was there I discovered the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, some of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries, and more.  
   My mom seeing me begin to read through many of these at a quick pace, knew what to do.  It was that decision that brought her and me to the new mystery bookstore that had recently opened for business.  When the store owner, Ruth, asked me what I liked to read, this then shy 12 year old kid was able to explain that I liked "hard boiled detective stories, with fights, and wise cracks from the main character."  She had just the thing for me, and walked us over to a shelf and explained to me that an author named Gregory MacDonald had recently come out with a book that was doing quite well in sales and she explained how I should like it because it was about a wise cracking investigative reporter.  That is the book that my mom bought for me, and I read "Fletch" in a day, or two, and was back to the shop again that weekend to immerse myself into more of the reading worlds that The Scene of the Crime had to offer.  Oh the adventures I had, and read!
    Seriously, I could go on and on regaling you with some of the adventures I experienced there.  Where to begin?  I remember sneaking peaks at the voluptuous woman's naked rear end on the cover of the Mickey Spillane paperback "The Last Cop Out," I fondly recall going to book signings and meeting Nicholas Meyer the author of the Sherlock Holmes book "The Seven Percent Solution" (and others) BEFORE he became a director of films, including two of the Star Trek ones.  I met my favorite author Robert B. Parker there, as well as the legendary Elmore Leonard.  I even happened to be in the store one summer morning when actress Loni Anderson, was buying books for her then husband Burt Reynolds.
    Scene of the Crime was ahead of its time for bookstores; hosting mystery author related trips.  I traveled overnight to San Francisco with the Windfeldts and others for a Dashiell Hammett trip where I met author William F. Nolan and had him sign my "Logan's Run" books (I still have all three of his original paperbacks in the series, signed by him to me). My dad, who knew Raymond Chandler was asked to speak on the day-trip where fans from the store went by bus around Los Angeles to see sites from the author's books.  Dad's lecture was at Musso & Franks a restaurant that a few years later would have his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star placed nearby.  On the bus that was our transportation for that day trip, I can still  remember Ruth introducing some of us to each other, and pointing out one of our number who was "a member of the LAPD;" a young man who I believe now to have been author, Paul Bishop, who I met later quite a few times at signings after he became a published author.  I am grateful to be able to call him a friend, who I regularly correspond with. 
    As I wrote yesterday it was Paul, who introduced me, via social media, to his fellow author Robert F. Dorr, who I now speak with by phone, and with whom I hope to have a meal with later this month.  I am reflecting today on the wonderful connections offered by being a friend of just one bookstore.  Because a woman named Ruth took an actress' son figuratively by hand and took the time to steer him in the right direction, he became a book lover for life, and has amassed memories and friends along the way.
   Today is Sunday; a day where I often find time in my vocation as a priest to offer thanks.  The Scene of the Crime bookstore is no more, but I give thanks to that shop, and to all of those named here (including the late Mickey Spillane's wife who was apparently the model on the cover of that particular book), as they have been a huge part in enriching my life.   Thank you.  It is because you that I love to read; it is because you that I enjoy writing; it is because of you that I am this book lover still today!