While those bookstores are both gone, much like the Montgomery grocery store and the Opelika department store, Toomer's is still downtown, and prouder than ever.

You can only get the things they list here in small quantities now. But have some lemonade, buy a t-shirt, try a sandwich.

The interesting thing here -- aside from wondering if they wanted those guys mingling in the shot or if they just wouldn't leave -- is how Toomer's has changed. Not from 1952 to the 21st Century, but from earlier in the 20th Century. I have a 1927 Glomerata where the ad for Toomer's isn't nearly of this scope. They clearly had no idea of their large and enduring role in the community, but it seems they were figuring it out mid-century.

The front looks a bit different now. Where the two guys are standing has been fenced off, there's a small ornamental holly tree and some monkey grass there. The Auburn Walk of Fame started on these sections of cement, with the explanation marker and the biggest of the big names radiating outward.

Perhaps not then, but this is now the approximate the center of the known universe for today's Auburn man.

The best of things can endure; the facade might have changed just a bit, but the font perseveres.

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