As the Warren community prepares for the inevitable wrecking ball to come crashing through the crumbling brick walls of some of the most iconic storefronts of a couple of generations of the last 100 years, I simply cannot think past the front window of Wayne’s.
It was here that I, like countless others, encountered some of the plethora of magazines of the late 1960s, 1970s, and well into the 1980s.
By Maylon Rice
Saline River Chronicle Feature Contributor
All across the front window, from the twin doors on the left and right of the bustling diner, pool hall and community center, there was an expanse of magazines, comic books and general information unavailable anywhere else within 50 miles of Warren. This selection opened a wider world for me outside the confines of Bradley County.
Everything from LIFE, LOOK, TIME, NEWSWEEK, Redbook, Popular Mechanic, Car & Driver, Motorcycle Digest, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Reader’s Digest and the Saturday Evening Post, could be found there for the adult readers.
There were Bride & Groom magazine, VOGUE, Today’s Women, Seventeen, and yes, even the scandalous COSMO, on sale.,
For the teenagers, the magazine selection contained, TEEN, Flip, Tiger Beat, 16 Magazine, FaVE, and Teen Life.
And on those wire racks were such pulp selections as Sergeant Rock, Action, D.C. Comics, Superman, Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Casper (The Friendly Ghost), Archie and Jughead, Classic Illustrated (a favorite for a quick book report in Warren Junior High), Bettye and Veronica, The Amazing Spiderman, Avengers, Strange Mysteries, Tom & Jerry, Conan, Ironman, Mickey Mouse, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, and the ever popular Uncle Scrooge McDuck.
Not until you crossed over into Jefferson County and the county seat of Pine Bluff could you find a news stand equal to the assortment found in the front window of Wayne’s.
The twin wire stands of comic book holders were placed as sentries to the long, wooden shelved stand of the magazine display. The wire comic racks were changed out perhaps twice a month and fresh and new comic books were placed there.
It was also at Wayne’s I got my first gander at a comedic magazine – aptly called MAD Magazine, which was a wonderful delight of word play and comedic comedy of art and photographs which tickled my funny bones.
The first one, I recall seeing, was well after the magazines’ posted boy, Alfred E. Newman (what me, worry) was installed on the front cover in some sort of parody each and every issue for several decades.
I look back now on a virtual tribe of Warren boys who hung around those comic book racks and the magazine areas. The late Donald Reynolds, a classmate of mine, was perhaps the best read of all the comic books there. Donald accompanied his parents for their afternoon coffee and came in the door making a bee-line to the comic book racks.
At a glance, Reynolds could tell you if there were any new comics in the stand.
And if you engaged him in a conversation about a particular comic, he was an expert on the story line in the book you were holding – because he had, best I could tell, had read the story standing right there in the front of Wayne’s while his parents sat at a nearby table enjoying a cup of coffee and visiting with the ever passing parade of folks in and out of Wayne’s.
And Donald was not the only chronic comic book reader back then. There were others. Lots of others.
As the new MAD Magazine took my fancy the pulp comics sort of lost their luster.
The back inside cover of the magazine was a mysterious riddle folding or unfolding as the art work, folded into thirds revealed a comedic commentary on a news event of the day. It was called simply, the fold-in.
Rarely was there a copy of MAD in Wayne’s that didn’t bear a crease along the back cover to unveil the mystery message and commentary.
Inside MAD magazine was a continuous group of eye-popping features, such as Spy Vs. Spy, the Lighter Sider, Don Martin gags, “A Mad Look at..”
And “Drawn Out.”
The magazine contained a keen sense for parodies – such as advertising parodies, – usually of their own advertisers as well as national branded items.
Other features are a paradoxical mode where “A bird’s eye view”, “Hawks and Doves,” and “Believe It or Nuts.”
Yes, there was quite a bit of time spent in the front window of Wayne’s waiting for a ride from one’s’ parents, or for a buddy to show up to go down the street to the Pastime Theater.
Sadly soon, a victim of age, neglect and time eternal will reduce the structure weathered by use, age and the dusts of time, to by memories – Pastimes if you will of days gone by.
That is a Pastime that will not fade for me.
Remember when Wal-Mart wanted to have a store in Warren? And the ‘city fathers’ nixed it because they thought it would hurt local business? Well, guess what? Wal-Mart went to Monticello. Enough said.