Q: What did you do before this?
Bob: Can you put I was a bum? No, eh? How do you define a bum? And what is the difference between a bum and a sportsman? A bum is somebody who is unemployed and poor and a sportsman is somebody who is unemployed but too rich to be a bum. I had a job which I hated. I had nothing but interference. My father thought I was insane. He said if I wanted to open a bookstore to first get experience by working in one.
Q: You had no experience at all in this type of enterprise?
Bob: No only imagination. At times I feel that experience can be a hindrance to new trends and ideas. I feel that a bookshop should be something beautiful where people don't feel rushed, a place that sets a mood of well-being. My friends thought I was nuts to put chairs here. I don't care if someone reads here for four hours. I don't ever want to become too commercialized.
Q: Why do you wear a beard?
Bob: Well it's less of a shave and it goes good with the store.
Bob: Immensely pleased, yes, you can say they're immensely pleased. Of course, my father would never praise me to my face.
**
The Seven Steps at 1430 Stanley later became the Rainbow Bar and Grill, part-owned by sociologist Taylor Buckner. Supposedly there was a police shooting there somewhere around 1970, before the switch but I still haven't tracked down the details of that. Bob is reportedly still alive and living in Val David north of Montreal after several decades in a co-op on Hutchison. He'd be about 81.