Lyle (circa today), divorced and living it upMemories are a funny thing. Like ghosts, they can lie dormant for years, only to be stirred back to life by just the right trigger.
Case in point: just got off the phone with my good friend, and fellow "Avenger," Mark, and it seems my confession posted yesterday on my brief criminal career at a certain local comic book store was such a memory spark. Turns out Mark knew exactly what and where I was talking about, which--mind you--is not to say that he lifted anything from the store like I did.
He didn't.
Yet our discussion about the place--okay, let's say it: Lyle's Hobby & Craft on Cass Avenue in Westmont, Illinois--raised some eerily familiar stories.
While Mark and I agreed that while Lyle's store selection was good, the obnoxious 'tude he dispensed was not limited to kid customers, but also adults. Mark noted that during one visit to the store as a kid, his own father (and later grandparents) noted how bad Lyle's behavior was, and how his obsessive habit of cramming new comics into metal racks made removing them without mangling the books almost impossible. Ditto on Lyle's brilliant habit of writing prices on back issues in pencil, in addition to his poor jobs of model railroad repair, and overcharging customers.
Mark and I also reminisced about how Lyle's cranky, senile old mother would work the register (with a small TV beside her to keep her distracted), and wail at us kids for the slightest infraction - real or imagined.
Indeed, Lyle lived in a kingdom of his own making, and seemed to relish reminding his customers of it at every turn. Shockingly, the man was also married, which I'm sure is as much of a surprise to you--dear readers--as it was to Mark when I told him. In fact, I believe I saw Lyle's wife at the store once with the couple's infant child, making the fact that anyone married the guy--much less bred with him--enough to evoke wave after wave of intense nausea.
Still, as unpleasant as Lyle himself was, his former comic store is the site of many fertile memories.
11 comments:
I love the picture!
Well, I never stole there but I did experience the same behavior from them.
When I first starting going there in high school, Lyle's mom would often berate him as well as the customers. One of my brother's friends lipped off to the old bat which prompted her to yell, "Lyle, one of these kids is being smart and is going to get a kick in the ass." This phrase was repeated many times by us in the following weeks.
After high school, I did a three-year hitch in the Army. During one of my leaves back home, I saw that Lyle was indeed married with a child and brought in the infant. When his Mom started getting loud, Lyle told her to pipe down because of the baby. She told him she'd make as much noise as she'd like which prompted Lyle to tell her that she'd be quiet or have to go home. Apparently marriage and/or fatherhood did something for him.
The next time I went there was also the last time. I had received my final pay from the Army and it was burning a hole in my pocket. I selected about $100 worth of comic books and gaming material which I had in my hand and was paging through one of the new comics to see if I already had it. Lyle's mother made a comment to the effect that this wasn't a library and I'd either have to buy the book or put it back. I walked up to the counter, put all the stuff by the register, and started to walk out. The old bat asked me if I was going to buy the stuff. I told her no and she said I'd have to put it back. I told her in no uncertain terms where she could put the stuff and never went back.
Sorry it took me so long to notice your comment, KJ.
Maybe there should be a blog dedicated exclusively to old war stories told by Lyle's former customers.
Hi- Just feeling nostalgic, googled "Lyle's Hobby Westmont," and this was the first return. Just had to share my two cents on the store. Lots of good memories and only a few bad (namely the cranky mom who caught me reading a comic once behind the spinner and just about bit my head off- very traumatic for a 12 year old!). That place was a trip- tons of plastic models, a bunch of Halloween masks in the back, and Lyle's annoying habit of writing the price of bagged back issues on the back of the actual comic in pencil. Why couldn't he afford stickers? And any comic that exceeded $4 in market value would somehow vanish from the back issue boxes. What happened to them? To this day, I have dozens of comics with his handwriting on them...
At any rate, I remember pillaging the place when he decided to close shop. He had some great deals near the end there and I was able to complete a ton of comic book series that I was reading at a fairly decent price. If you lived in that area, Lyle's was the place to get your geek fix in the 80's. I have nothing but good memories of riding my bike there on Fridays for new comic book day. I had heard he went to go teach at Westmont High School, but that might be misinformation. I just hope his mom didn't become a substitute there as she could have easily devastated a generation of children...
What a trip down memory lane...
Funny that your blog is the ONLY reference to this place and its antics on the Internet?
Thanks for dredging up the memory of this place and its interesting occupants.
For some reason this morning I just had a memory of Lyles hobbies and crafts. I’ll place my mom would take me off and that was a gold mine of comic books that I lo ved. I remember Lyle always had a great Christmas sale.
I do remember the strange behavior from Lyle and his mom period. Although I never really had a problem with them, except for while always telling me that this wasn’t the public library, my mom did. She debated him why should he buy a magazine without seeing what’s inside of it. I remember she would always make a remark to me about how the fact that he could shove three bagels into his mouth at the end of our visit, and she nickname Tim the bagel machine.
I do remember some other customers getting into it with his mom. One woman in particular who told her off and through the magazine across the room and stormed out. It is a young kid it was a cool little comic sanctuary that was pretty lucrative to a young comic book reading kid. I remember the store going out of business or closing around the early 90s.
Today the kids all got their phones and all that but back then we had comic books, although they were about $.50 and not for box today
Yes! Exactly as I remember it. This place was an interactive sitcom I visited often between the ages of nine to 15. Even so, Lyle made me ride my bike back to my house to fetch a dime when I was 10 cents shy of being able to buy the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game with Tom Baker and Louise Jameson on the cover. Those endless trays of D&D and Gamma World miniatures in the back were mesmerizing. I wish someone would post pictures of this place online -- someone must have taken them at some point!
Good lord this is my childhood. Rode my bike from Downers Grove. Stopped at the 7-11 for a slushy and play the Phoenix video game. Man those were the days.
yes I remember the trays. He was always huffing and puffing about bringing them out but man what a sight as a kid as they were laid on the counter.
Me too!
Rode my bike from Downers Grove, and then had to ride back with the latest Avalon Hill or D&D books in a bag slung over my handlebar, hitting me in the knee all the way home.
Lyle was definitely cranky as he had to sit there while we picked out miniatures from tray after tray.
Good memories though.
This place was a trip. Lyle's mom had a voice that could curdle milk, bless her heart.
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