Posted on 02/02/2008 5:54:03 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
John / Billybob
This is fabulous!!!
Thanks so much.
Great reminiscence, BillyBob.
Our kids see our humble local library, a mile’s walk from home, through parental eyes as a place of wonder. Soon after we moved down here the librarian said, “We’re getting used to seeing parades of Smedleys coming through here!”
This brings back fond memories. I share your affection for the written word, and libraries have always been favorite haunts of mine.
Terrific story! How many people just like you did Enoch Pratt light the way for by his endowment? Pretty amazing to imagine!
I am now wallowing joyously in memories of the Sheboygan Public Library. A marble temple, where I moved from the children’s section. to Greek mythology, to biographies of great Americans, to English novels, to Dostoyevsky and Kafka and Thomas Mann.
It was a magic place.
Pratt Institute? NY
I won’t try to compete with your story, but I know what you mean. I too owed a lot to libraries when I was growing up.
Sad to think of what a fine city Baltimore once was.
It was only a mile, and children regularly and safely walked the streets alone back then. . . .and a sadness here for our cities, with the loss of a child's safe walk, alone, going anywhere. . .
It reminded me our the Saturday Walk to the Library I and my siblings took every week as we grew up. The Library has been replaced with a shiney new one, but I clearly remember the "book smell" and the slightly slanted wooden floors and sturdy wooden tables and chairs. I could draw a floor plan of the whole building...furniture and all...telling you where each section was located and where some of the actual books were usually placed.
Nice for us...after my much-younger baby brother began school, Mama became a librarian in that same building. Thanks for the shared memories and for the reminder.
I was about 10 years old when our small town got a “library”.
I put library in quotes because it was extremely small by my standards today but at the time I was in hog heaven.
I remember walking a few blocks as a youngster in San Francisco in the Sixties, and being cautioned by my grandfather to be careful, as ‘these [were] dangerous times’.
I miss him, but I’m also glad that he didn’t see how much more dangerous the times would become. One of my destinations was my first library- the branch library on 36th Avenue (IIRC) , between Geary and Anza streets.
Nice...brought back a lot of good memories...books have always been a part of my life too.
Had a teacher that lead her class of grade-schoolers on a field trip to the local library many, many years ago (I believe it was the third grade). Thanks to that field trip, I have had a love of books that knows no bounds all my life. To this day I prayerfully thank that teacher.
Thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories. ;-)
This brought back memories of the Calgary library my parents took me to when I was a kid, almost 50 years ago. It was a squarish building, built in cedar log style, with the second level raised up over a semi-submerged basement. On Saturday mornings, in the winter, we would go there all bundled up in our parkas and heavy boots (this was pre-Global Warming), and then leave our winter clothes at the door to descend to the very warm basement for weekly story time.
It wasn’t the same when they opened up the new branch library 10 years later as just another glass storefront in the local shopping mall.
The other day my 20-year-old daughter (home from college) and I went to the Tempe library. As a member of the first fully digital generation, she sees no reason to ever again buy a physical recording of music or even a physical book. She sees the clutter that books and CDs and videotapes and DVD have created in her parent’s life, and wants no part of it. She’s perfectly happy to download almost all the information in her life. As we approached the building, she asked me, “What will happen to libraries when everything is digital?” I mumbled something about people still needing a place to visit to share knowledge, but one thing I know, it will never be the same.
Funny, the memories we all have of serious, but somehow. . .easier/safer times.
When quite small, I rode my tricycle 'into town' and with help; made it safely home. Later, spent many school years, walking to school and riding my bycycle. It was such a great feeling of independence and 'freedom'. Today, my daughter's children attend a school that is right in her neighborhood; a sneeze or two away from her doorstep. And while a 'safe neighborhood', the Mother's nontheless, accompany their children to school to insure their safe arrival.
Going it alone today, anywhere for a chid; is simply and sadly, not an option.
(And as of late; not even safe for the older 'chidren' as well; given the number of free for all abductions of young women in the past years. It has become almost 'sporting'. . .and and outrageous. in it's insanity.
Do wish Repubs would speak to this issue; pointing out that so often; we can thank a Liberal Judge for these perps even being on the street; while reminding them of the importance of not voting for those who will allow this 'new tradition' to continue.)
Then, my wife reminded me that the last time I wrote a "personal" rather than a "political" column, that the reactions were quite positive and folks appreciated the work more, the personal way.
I am pleased by all the fine memories about the beginnings of a love of books that my small story engendered. Thank you.
John / Billybob
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.