having discovered FM with #55, my initial introduction was to the 'stapled' feel. but one day i was at 'Dales Book Store' in Tampa and stumbled upon a litany of FM's for sale for like a quarter each. of course, this was 1970, so a quarter for me was not easy to come by. heck, i was only 9.

anyway, i hid a bunch of them and scurried home like a bat out of hell, scrounging all the change i could find. scored some coke bottle refunds from the porch, and hustled back to 'Dales' where another kid had already been during my departure and snagged up half of the FMs that were there, leaving me the other half. the other kid took all the early issues, leaving me the 30's, 40's, and a few 50's, all of which i snagged.

years later in life, i was the lead singer of a rock band in tampa (Blade), and one day my guitarist and i were shootin' the breeze about Universal monsters and sci-fi, when i mentioned to him Famous Monsters of Filmland. he responded that he loved that mag, and laughed as he told me he scored a ton of them from Dales' Book Store when he was a kid, and that he snagged them from another kid who had ran home to get some money.

after i kicked his ass into the ground (just kidding), i informed him that i was that kid and i wanted my FM's back. we were both blown away!!