Love of Libraries

I am not Nick Russell.  I so admire his work ethic. He posts everyday. Even the day after his rally when he was bone tired, he posted that he was bone tired. He apologized for not having the energy or brainpower left to post. He wrote more than two sentences coherently then signed off to head to bed.   Me? I just don’t write. I have however in my quilt, been reading.  Make me feel more righteous.  Must use brain for something. Must use brain for something. Cannot sit on couch with TV emitting toxic messages and evaluate the sad affair of non cable TV shows and TV marketing. I believe I have touched on my reactions to that scary stuff earlier.

Back to reading… I love my public library card. I understand that being retired and not traveling full-time I have the freedom of selecting and returning books without paying large fines that include naming new additions of the library after me.  Actually even when I am traveling modestly for a month or so at a time, if the dogs will kindly remind me to call and renew the books every two weeks before they are overdue, I am good to keep driving around listening to the books on tape till I make it back to Ohio…whenever. Florence, my favorite head librarian, reminds me that as long as no one puts a reserve request on a book they really don’t care how many times I renew them.  Rather they do care. They like it. It all shows up as circulation numbers on their statistics. And good statistics can translate to funding and grants.

I have always loved books.  Meeting the characters and exploring the places books introduced me to were my first experiences with the love of journeys and adventures.

When my mother left Ohio with my brother and sister and myself, she took us to Houston, Texas, and enrolled me in the third grade. I found myself in the SLOWEST reading group.  I was smart enough to realize which “bird” group I was in. Only later would I figure out that it had to do with Ohio’s curriculum and when/if phonics was ever taught. And I also figured out that the answers to those math questions on the board were listed in the back pages of the math book and you could flip to the back of the book and look them up. And they thought the Ohio girl was slow! 

Anyway, I spent many hours that year in the library and with books.  Besides the fact that I was uprooted from Ohio and not so happy being in Texas away from what was familiar. I missed my animals but I still had books.

After that year, my father came down to Texas in the summer to pick us up for his month of visitation. We headed back to Ohio and after going through the courts it was decided that we did not need to go back to Texas.  But my affinity for libraries was established.  Where else in the world can anyone walk into a building and gain access to almost unlimited learning. If you want to know something or teach your self something (or escape something) you are only limited by your ability to read.  

So, even if my books are over due, I smile and pay my due to keeping knowledge available to the free world.