Coalesce, Morro Bay's Landmark Bookstore, Celebrates 40th Anniversary

By Linna Thomas, owner of Morro Bay's Coalesce Bookstore

I was fresh out of college (University of Washington in Seattle where I had grown up) and Janet Brown was fresh out of the Benedictine Convent in Salem, Oregon, where she had been a nun for ten years and which she left shortly before making her final vows. We lived with our boyfriends in a big farmhouse south of Portland, a commune-type living situation where we sat around the big fireplace at night and hatched plans to open a bookstore in the tiny coastal town of Morro Bay.  I had been smitten by a feature article in the Portland newspaper about Sandal, the self-styled Morro Bay guru, who for many years lived a simple life on the bay in a houseboat he called Makara Monastery. My boyfriend at the time planned to move down here to build steel-hulled fishing boats (which he did do, founding  what is now the Quintana Forge).  We were young and fearless, time and energy were infinite, and we didn't have any idea how much we didn't know!

We headed south in 1973 and opened Coalesce on the big weed-patched lots on Harbor Street in the little ole beach cottage that was held together by pounds of nails and shelving we installed and our faith that it would live to see another day. Janet and I had no business experience, very little money ($1200), and didn't know if we'd even like being in business. The roof of our building leaked like a sieve, there were no right angles other than the books, termites were afoot, but there was boundless room to garden outdoors and a happy ebb & flow of books and customers. We declared ourselves an "informal information center" right from the start and have always hosted story-times, poetry readings, musical events, women's groups...you name it. The more traditional business community of the 1970s in Morro Bay looked at us a bit askance, but we were able to pay the rent ($125 per month) and stay in business.  Janet and I were business partners for five years and stayed close friends until her death from breast cancer four years ago.  In important ways, I feel that we will always have joint custody of the bookstore.

In 1981, I suddenly and out of the clear blue sky called Marjorie Smith at the Book Shelf bookstore on Main Street and told her I wanted to rent her building.  It turned out she was ready to retire, so I bought out her book inventory  (eight boxes!) and we moved up the street and around the corner into our new home at 845 Main. Before the move, we remodeled the building from stem to stern, much to the consternation of the Smiths, who cringed as we popped in skylights and busted through walls, but they trusted us and gave us a free rein.  We accomplished much of our move from Harbor Street with a human chain of bodies that passed items from hand to hand the three blocks to our current location.  I purchased the property from the Smiths in 1986 and stayed close friends with Marjorie until her death at age 94  five years ago. She was a mentor and inspiration to me always.

In our new quarters we expanded our operation to include weddings, memorials and baptisms and continued the community events we had loved hosting over the years. The Chapel, designed by the Cal Poly architecture department as a senior project and built in 1973, was a wonderful new venue for us and gave us endless opportunities to expand our offerings. It has also been used over the years in innumerable ways by our local community--Hospice, weight watchers, club meetings and organizations, story times for kids, yoga and taichi, etc.

I have been blessed to have great people by my side at Coalesce: Sherri Hereford has worked with me for 38 years and Joanne Hand for 26.  They are both smart and loving women who are invaluable to our outreach and our survival.  What we do would not be possible or nearly as much fun without them!  Joanne's son Jordan grew up at Coalesce and worked with us until he graduated from Cal Poly and found a  job in San Luis Obispo in his chosen field. Linda Bell is the "new girl," barely a year working with us..  Together we keep busy--now the only bookstore left in Morro Bay and one of just two independents left in the entire county.  I miss my bookselling colleagues and the wonderful stores they owned that used to pepper the area from San Simeon to south county and points east--The Novel Experience,.Gabbys. Norwood, Paper Reeds, Earthling, the Laguna West stores, Bookhaven, Books Ahoy, etc.. All of them had their specialty niches and  their unique strenghts and  personalities.  San Luis County is a poorer community for having lost them.

Forty years have flown by!  It occurs to me that it is futile to hope for 40 more, but certainly we are here for the forseeable future--pedaling books, welcoming book groups and others to our chapel and appreciating the support of many in our community and of Morro Bay visitors who have us on their routes. We often hear people say that they visit us whenever  they're in the area.  We appreciate these travelers from near and far, and our local friends and supporters more than words can say.