Doors at nine

By seven in the morning there were forty-three people in line outside the Lake Street branch, and Dot counted eleven flashlights and six folding carts. The Friends of the Library book sale was the only event in St. Paul where retired schoolteachers elbowed each other for a first edition of a Minnesota cookbook.

Dot had the cash box, a roll of quarters and a hand bell that the Friends rang at nine to open the doors and at three to announce that everything left was a dollar a bag. She rang it at nine sharp and stepped aside before she was trampled.