They probably had a candy counter, too, maybe sold beef jerky, but nothing more substantial or nourishing. Some had a vending machine for soft drinks. No bottled water, of course.
What they primarily sold was ink printed on paper in various forms and formats, all of which published on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You could walk in and with a buck or two purchase the news of the day, reviews of the last week's news, a weekly or monthly magazine that covered your favorite sports or hobby, the latest DC or Marvel Comics releases and a couple paperback detective novels. For another four bits you could toss in a pack of smokes and free matches and some Wrigley's Spearmint or a pack of Lifesavers.
And every Sunday, after dropping the family off at OLPH for 9AM Mass, my Father would drive to the News Store on Forklanding Road and buy a copy of the Sunday NY Times, which, along with our subscribed edition of the Sunday Philadelphia Bulletin, would be waiting for us to read when we got home.
I was in Heaven! After breakfast, I'd tear into the Times and the Bulletin and read and read and read until it was 6PM and I finally had to get to my homework for Monday.
I remember an outdoor news stand in Philadelphia, on Market Street, which I would pass several times a day while I was running errands for my Father's print shop in the building at 1010 Arch Street (across from the Trocadero Burlesque Theater). It's gone, now, I'm sure, as is The Troc. (UPDATE: The Troc is now a music and comedy theater). But I always stopped there and browsed, in awe of the selection: local, national and international publications, a GREAT selection of "girly" magazines, which caught my randy teenage eye, comic books and just about anything you'd ever want to lay eyes on, on paper. So much good stuff to read!
The key, of course, is "on paper." Today, even the printing presses have been laid off. Magazine circulation is way off, newspaper circulation is way off, and comic books are now expensive "graphic novels" and I don't much care about them anymore anyway, at least until they become movies and then I might give them a shot.
The best news stands we had in St. Louis, in recent memory, were the World News locations in Clayton and Wesport Plaza. Dunno if they're still around, but I clearly remember going into the Wesport store a few years ago and inhaling and smelling that distinctive smell of ink.
Now I carry an ASUS Netbook in my satchel and look for web linkage.
It just does not smell the same.
