MAD SWIRL REGULARS OPEN CLIFF NOTES
by Gordon Hilgers

When Carlos and Opalina Salas, two regular participants in the monthly Mad Swirl poetry extravaganza at Absinthe Lounge here in Dallas, opened a tiny, independent bookstore--the only bookstore in Oak Cliff by the way--it was a dream a long time coming.

Cliff Notes, as the couple cleverly named the almost nook-sized bookstore, opened October 10.

“Carlos and I had wanted to open a bookstore for at least 10 years,” Opalina says. “This tiny little bookstore is only the first tier of some really grand ideas we have. First, you know, it starts with a bookstore. But,” she adds, “we knew we wanted to open a bookstore because we had both worked at Half Price Books. I have a lot of experience working in the front-end of a bookstore and with management, and Carlos has years of experience working in the back of one. Actually, we make one whole store with the experience we share.”

In fact, as their hopes for a bookstore of their own have grown, the Oak Cliff couple has been collecting books, mainly books by the Beat Generation, for years.

“We have been buying duplicates of books we knew were hard to find and by authors we would want to carry,” Opal, as her friends call her, says. “Sometimes, we would give the books away as gifts. We actually donated some books to a recent Mad Swirl benefit. You know, people were donating artwork and other things for a raffle to help in the costs of producing what has now come to be known as ‘The Blue Note issue’ of the Mad Swirl’s magazine. The cover looks like one of the old, 1950s-era Blue Note Records album covers.”

In the spirit of the era that witnessed Be Bop and Beatniks, then, Carlos and Opal donated some Jack Kerouac jazz-inspired novels and a little of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s work to help finance an audio CD included with the distinctively-designed issue. “That’s right. We donated some Beats. Our collection of Beats is part of what we put into the bookstore.”

But opening bookstores, even the tiny Cliff Notes, costs money. Opal says the couple’s dream remained just that—until an unexpected, if sad, windfall provided them with both books and money to make good on their dream. One of their best friends, poet Richard Sevrens, died of complications from leukemia last Spring.

“When Dick died, we had no idea that he’d left us all his books, his entire library, but he had also left us money.”

Suddenly, Opal and Carlos had both the money and the books necessary to make their dreams come true. Even then, however, in Opal’s words, “We kind of sat on the idea for awhile.

“I was really psyching myself out because I was too nervous about it. It was quick how it all happened.”

Opal says she and her husband, always thinking of their dream, always would get the telephone numbers of storefront properties for lease, but according to her, they’d never call.

“We were always too chicken. We were like: There’s no way we can do this. Even when we finally had the money to open a bookstore, we thought actually opening one would be too much. You know: negative thinking. Well…on a positive-thinking day, I actually called to find out about a space we’d found near the corner of Tyler and Davis in Oak Cliff.

Utter luck ensued. “We found out the spot was so affordable, so cheap, that there was no way we could give-up that space. Honestly. We had to have the bookstore right there: 416 N. Tyler, about a half mile from the Bishop Street Arts District.”

Opal remembers the day well. “It was just immediate to me. I said, ‘This is it!’” While not completely superstitious or anything, she saw the small space as a sign that she and her husband were going to have to make their dream happen. “Right now,” she says. “I just immediately said, ‘Yes!’ But Carlos made me wait a day before we signed for the property. He said, ‘Just wait a day.’”

Eventually, Opal says, the couple signed onto their ship of dreams. “We got a good deal,” she adds.

“As far as opening the bookstore, we had dragged our feet for so long that the only way we were going to do it was to just jump in”

One thing especially propitious for the location of Cliff Notes is that it’s centered in a neighborhood that is beginning to show some signs of real life for the first time in at least 20 years. Next door to Cliff Notes sits a bicycle shop. Across the street, a couple of small art studios have opened. There’s even a 7/11 up the hill.

“Officially, people kind of like to look at us as being a part of the Bishop Street Arts District,” Opal says, “but I kind of like to look at this district as a separate entity. A little bit funkier. A little bit more hidden. But it’s less than a mile from the Bishop Street Arts District. But this district has been here awhile. The spaces have that tin molding on the ceiling that’s really nice. Right next to us is an optical shop. That’s the guy who plays his Johnny Cash real loud. He likes to jam out.”

Though she hasn’t officially counted the Cliff Notes inventory, Opal believes the store contains roughly 2,000 books. “We have a small spot.”

Approximately 65 percent of Cliff Notes’ is the collection formerly owned by poet Richard Sevrens. The rest is a combination of both new books and books Opal and Carlos have collected. As anyone might suspect, there are plenty of books by Beat era writers. Books on Buddhism. Politics. Even a section titled “Subversive.”

In addition to books by well-known authors, as both Opal and Carlos are quick to point out, sit chapbooks by local poets Josh Weir and M. H. Clay, both of whom can be seen performing at Mad Swirl. The couple is adamant that Cliff Notes will be glad to feature books by local writers.

Community events and even activism serve as part of the plans for Cliff Notes. “Ideally, what I really wanted to do when I had a bookstore was to be able to offer what the community may need. We’d like to be able to do book drives for the schools in the area in the future. If there are any classrooms that need books, I want to be able to provide them,” Opal says.

“The bicycle shop,” Opal adds, “is very active. And I’ve learned from their example that I need to be active in the causes I believe in. What I really want the bookstore to be is a really good avenue for artists and local writers to make their work available to the public. I really want that to work: for somebody to be turned on to a writer in the community. You can publish your work yourself. I mean, just do it yourself.”

Cliff Notes is already a member of two important booksellers groups: IndieBound, which reflects the couple’s “indie” stance regarding, well, lots of things--and The American Booksellers Association.

Opening night? Loopy artist types. Silent intellectual types that were “just letting people in on the fact” they were writing a novel. Enthusiastic poets. “Wow! It was great! The area was having a huge event with all sorts of tricked-out bicycle demonstrations, gallery openings, and of course, us. And there were so many people for all of it, and then we had a bunch of our friends there. It was like a big reunion. It’s fun to see all the people you know in one room though they don’t know each other. It’s so cool to see them get along and meet each other. It was a good night in that there were so many creative forces in one room together. There were a lot of artists there.”

But for Opal and Carlos Salas, opening morning was an evocative time that can barely be described.

“It was still early in the day. We had a sign out in the front, you know, that had our name and what we had--and a little chalkboard design. A little girl was with her family outside. And she had a little book clutched in her arms, and she walked over to the sign and saw that it said BOOKS on it, and she hugged her book. She had this look in her eyes that said she was so happy that there was a bookstore there.

“It just made my heart melt. There aren’t any other bookstores in Oak Cliff. I don’t think there’s a bookstore at Redbird Mall anymore. The little girl came in the store, and she just sat down and started looking at the children’s books. But to me, it was that look that she had. We were there for her. It may not seem to be a big thing, but it is.”

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