Today, as I was coming back into my air-conditioned office after lunch I couldn’t help but think of the library…
Growing up in Ohio my parents didn’t believe that the few weeks of 90+ degree weather each summer warranted the expense of air-conditioning. So when the temperature started to get unbearable, I would ride my bike to one of my favorite, air-conditioned, public spaces — the library.
It always seemed magical to me that anyone could go to the library, take out books, play on the computer (a huge deal back then!), and participate in the activities and events they offered. After the bike ride into town, it was always cool bliss entering the library with its high stained glass dome built in the era of Carnegie.
In my family, we always had books at home but at the library you could take out and read more books than I was sure even the richest person would be able to afford. I loved the fact that you didn’t need any money, all you needed was the coveted little, brown library card.
Looking back, I can’t fathom how many sultry hours I spent tucked into a corner of the library reading my way through the American Girl Series, the Babysitter’s Club or RL Stine’s Goosebumps. I remember getting caught up in a book and my own imagination, and then having to race back to beat my father home for lunch, which was an important step to being allowed to go to the pool in the afternoon.
I have air-conditioning now, but maybe I’ll stop by my library on my way home tonight anyway.
1 response so far ↓
1 Mary Ann // Aug 3, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Like Erin I too spent hundreds of hours in our downtown library when I was growing up. Our library was a large granite Federal style building that looked sort of like a miniature White House. Because it was several long city blocks away from where I lived, my Dad would drive me there every Thursday night, even though he had to be to work by 11 p.m. He would tuck himself away with the newspapers and I would roam the floors like I just won the lottery. Not only could I take out 6 or 7 books for my own reading each week, but on the art floor I ealnred the differnece betwen Money, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and all the rest. In the music room I took out albums of people I never even heard of but learned from - including Edith Piaf! And then there was a room where pictures and illustrations were mounted to cardboard on every subject imaginable and I took those out and studied them too. When I was older and though I’d be a nurse, I took out books on the nursing test and studied every one of them. In some ways, I was quite well self educated. Books and libraries are the best thing that ever happened to me.
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