The Circle Square Second had Store located in Downtown Missoula, Montana, is one of my favorite second hand stores in the world, though I rarely buy anything there.   I do visit it every time I'm in Missoula.  The top photo shows the exterior of the store and the Atlantic Hotel building where it is located.  One thing I love about this store is that it still looks exactly like that, over ten years later.  It is a consistent sight in a city that is rapidly changing.  It even seems to have some of the same stock inside that it has had for 10 years.  The one way it does change is that every time I go there it seems to be just a little more crowded with stuff.  The bottom photo shows what the inside of the shop looked like the last time I was there.

When I first moved to Montana, over 10 years ago, I was walking downtown one night.  It was very late and very quiet.  There was no traffic, and no other people on the streets.  The air was still and it was snowing big fluffy flakes.   The snow greatly enhanced the silence.  I was walking on the sidewalk across the street from the Circle Square shop when I noticed a young man who lived in the Atlantic Hotel above the store sitting in his room playing the guitar.  I couldn't hear him, but I could see him clearly, perfectly framed in the window just above the word "Buy" of the store's "We Buy Anything" sign.  He looked so serene, staring intently at his fret board as his right hand plucked the strings.   With the heavy vale of snow and the stillness of the night, I just had to stop   to appreciate this idyllic moment.  As I stood there with the snow covering my head like frozen down, the young man looked up and stopped playing.  He reached out and slid open his window.  Leaning out his head he yelled at me "Hey, what the F*CK are YOU looking at!?!" 

March 6,  2001

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"Circle Square Second Hand Store in 1990"

"Inside Circle Square 2001"