L is for Librariies

My love affair with libraries began when I was very young. While reading was important in my family, there was no money to buy books, so naturally the library was the place where we got them. My first library was in an old storefront that had two rooms and was a short walk from our house. My sisters and I often walked there together.

I can remember going to the library before I was old enough to go to school when Mrs. Simon and Mrs. Garrett were the librarians. I thought they were about the nicest people I'd ever met. At that point in time, my signature was rather sprawling even for just my first name and they let me use the entire card to sign out a book. I felt very important when I did that.

The town library continued to be important after I went to school. Because of funding problems, my school did not have a library. Each teacher had a small bookcase in the back of their room and that's where we got our school library books. However by 8th grade, the school finally built a library and I got to help set it up and work in it. Handling all of those brand new books was great.

As time went on, I had less time for leisure reading. The high school teachers had books for us to read as part of the curriculum and those took up much of my time. However, the town library was still an important part of my high school years. Every Monday night kids would meet at the library to do their homework. The gathering was more social than academic and it was great for me because this was a place I could meet with the popular kids that was acceptable. (It seemed that the popular kids were not usually at the library, but at a drinking party somewhere--not something I was interested in.)

During my college years, I was consumed with classes, and libraries faded to the background except for an occasional study session or to find a book to read in the summer. During this time, a new library was built in my hometown. The building was beautiful with beamed ceilings and fireplaces and that's where Ward and I had our wedding reception. Decades later, that library is still the place for many events in the town.

In the years to follow, Ward and I spent a lot of time in libraries with Wally and Theo. They were always excited by the limitless supply of books as were Ward and I. Then one day at a soccer game, one of the moms said that she was leaving her job at the library and a couple of weeks later, I had taken her place. Twelve years later, I'm still there and I'm happy.

I Love Libraries.

Other Random Library Thoughts

Apparently, there is not a limitless supple of books in every library because Ward read every single book in his junior high library.

The hardest part of my job is not being able to spend all of the time I want to perusing books I come across. They are not paying me to browse the collection all day long. Sigh.

When I first started working at the library, Wally and Theo would quiz me about what was the most interesting book I had handled that day. Everyone concluded that there is a book about most everything.