Coles Books: Remembering the book people

In the 1980s, at one point there were three Coles Books outlets in Lethbridge.

Source: https://coles-15.wheree.com/

(May be subject to copyright)

It was always a place I had to stop at when we went to the Lethbridge Centre Mall. It had this attraction, this magical power that just drew me in. No matter if I was with my mom, or my friends, whether we had all the time in the world, or were in a major hurry, I had to stop at Coles Books.

For a long time I thought the old national chain of bookstores had been folded in to the Chapters mega-bookstore empire, until something happened to me in Kamloops the last time I was there.

I saw a Coles Books,

That brought back a lot of memories from childhood but, quite frankly, any time I am in a bookstore I think of Coles.

Three times the charm
To be honest, I cannot recall the first time I stepped foot in a Coles. It always just seemed to be part of the mall.

What was interesting was that over time, if you said Coles in the mall, the next question was, “Which mall?”

Back in the 1980s, Coles had three bookstores in Lethbridge. There was the downtown one in the Lethbridge or Woodward’s Mall. That was the one I frequented the most often. There was the one in the Simpson Sears Mall, which I went to as well, because that was also on our shopping route. The third was one I went to rarely, because it was in the College Value or Woolco Mall, at the end of Mayor Magrath Drive, and not really part of our regular shopping route on Saturdays.

Each one contributed to the overall good feeling I had about Coles.

Autograph session
One Saturday, I was listening to the radio, which always played on 1220 CJOC on our kitchen radio, and heard something very interesting. Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, had written a book and would be signing books at the Coles in the Sears Mall.

I was able to convince my parents to go to the mall and get an autograph. When we got to Lethbridge, we went downtown first as we always did, and the autograph session did not start until later. My mom asked me what I planned to have autographed. I didn’t know.

Awhile earlier, my sister had run into the band Air Supply and got them to autograph a couple post cards her friend had. So, my mom suggested we get some post cards, which we did.

When we got the mall, we were pretty much the first people there. Schultz was just sitting there, waiting. So I went over and asked for his autograph. He seemed a little stunned and confused, but signed the post cards. Looking back, he was there to sell books, and we weren’t buying.

As I was getting the autograph, my mom must have seen everyone buying books, so she bought one, and I got that signed.

As we were leaving, this stranger came up to us. He was a photographer from the “Lethbridge Herald” and wanted my name and age. At school the next week, one of my classmates had a clipping of my picture in the paper.

It was my 15 minutes of fame. Incidentally, you could also see my mom’s hand in the corner of the picture, holding out the money to buy a book.

Christmas time
Every Christmas, I wanted to buy a present for my sister, partly because she always had something for me, and partly because she did a lot for me. She was an avid reader, so I thought I’d get her something special from Coles. So, every year I bought her a leather or fake leather bound book of collected writings of someone such as Sherlock Holmes or H.G. Wells or Shakespeare.

Parting thoughts
Unlike so many institutions, Coles hasn’t gone away. Locations still do exist, although the vast majority were folded into the Chapters and Indigo stores. Interestingy, when I Googled “Coles” it took me to Chapters.

Yet, when I am in a Chapters or Indigo, I don’t think of Chapters. They no longer had that small bookstore feel.

Instead, I think fondly of Coles when I am in a small, independent bookstore.