She was a nice older lady, who smoked constantly, while sitting behind a HUGE vintage cash register. That thing had more buttons than 10 keyboards! The Rock Bottom was only one of a series of shops in a row on both sides of the street. It was an old structure and the epitome of the "hole in the wall" bookshop (and I mean that in the BEST of ways! Wilda's shop was the place to be to get comic books back in the glory days of the mid-late 1970's and 1980's! Her customers ranged from elementary school kids like me, to older adults).

I was just an elementary school kid when I first started going to the Rock Bottom. Since I (and other little kids) could not even reach the top shelf, with that row of long boxes full of Bronze, Silver, and even some Golden Age comic books in alphabetical order I had to stand on an old milk crate (provided by Wilda) in order to check all of the boxes (and I would! I had allowance money burning a hole in my pocket!!). It was get on the crate, look at two or three boxes, scoot it along, get on the crate, repeat, repeat, repeat. In those halcyon days of the mid-to-late 1970's, the boxes were FILLED with Silver Age Comics in mint condition. They were only a few years old at that point, and were not commanding all of the higher prices that they do now. I bought Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Detective Comics, Batman, Flash and others! I mostly bought new comics in those days, however.

I went at least once per week, usually on Friday nights and picked up my new comics. I did not discriminate between DC and/or Marvel like many fans did in those days (maybe today as well), I loved and collected the lot from both companies. There was one week of the month, where ALL of my absolute FAVORITE books came out. There was NOTHING like going to the Rock Bottom Bookshop on a nice spring Friday afternoon (with Saturday Morning Cartoons to look forward to that next morning as well) and getting the newest issues of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and The Justice League Of America! Four Color Heaven!!
Every year at Christmas time in the mid-1980's, I would ask my parents for only ONE gift -- a $100 shopping spree at the Rock Bottom! I got a huge stack of books each year! While Wilda could get cranky at times, she was not one to take advantage of her customers.

Wilda is long gone now, but she is still honored by Alan, the current owner of the Rock Bottom and all of us who were around back in the days and remember Wilda with fondness! Raise your glass to the Rock Bottom Book Shop and to Ms. Wilda (NOT Wilma!) Hardin!