"And while you're in college why don't you think about buying some books, smart guy. Also, we're friendly. The friendly one in town, in fact. The other guys? Not so friendly. And they'll rob you blind. Possibly they kick kittens."

This crush of humanity for books is nothing I ever experienced. While Hawkin's had disappeared, there was a new store in roughly the same place and there were four textbook stores around town in the 90s. Sometimes they were friendly, always they wanted to rob you blind. Always the professors pretended to be shocked -- "They're charging how much!?" -- I bet that was the routine in the '50s too.

It looks like Hawkin's was so friendly that they insisted on using the asset to their advantage. The picture implies that you can't get your own books, that you have to wait in line for a friendly store hand. Of course they are students too, and if you ask for that last geometry book and she realizes that she's in that class too, she probably told you they were all out.

But she did it with a smile. Friendly, see? Not like those other guys.

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