I have a cluster of memories associated with going to the library. Since they're on my mind today I thought I might as well gather them here.
Age 4 - My absolute first memory of going to the library is only really memorable because of what I missed out on at home. My mom took me to story time one day. My 2-year-old brother stayed home with my dad, who was doing home repairs. When my mom and I returned from our outing, we found out we'd missed "the fire." There had been a kitchen fire, resulting in a couple of things surrounding the stove being charred. No one was hurt, and nothing was too damaged, but the smell. I remember being so bothered by it that I asked my parents: "Can we move?" (We had recently moved into that house... so, why not just pack up and go again?)
Age 9/10 - I'd become obsessed with The Baby-Sitters Club. I'd read about half of the 36ish books that had been released so far, all out of order. The second I entered the public library, I'd head straight for the paperback cart to grab any new (to me) books. One time my cousin and I even raced each other to the cart.
Also on this cart were the American Girl books, but I was deeply embarrassed by the fact that one of the girls not only had my name (Molly) but also vaguely looked like me. The horror!
We learned to use the card catalog to look up which BSC books the library had. I think we could also reserve books. One day, a librarian led me away from the card catalogs and told me I could now use A COMPUTER to search for books! You'd think I'd be intrigued, but I was not. I loved those cards.
Age 9.5 - My cousins and I went to some kid event at the public library. They had book trivia and I answered a question correctly and won a prize -- BSC book #33! I later loaned it out to a girl I knew, who took ages to return it, and when she did, the book was in poor condition. You'd think I would learn not to loan out books at that point, but... you would be wrong.
Age 5-8. We had two libraries at my elementary school: a small one for the primary kids and a bigger one for the older kids. In the small one, the librarian was named Mrs. White. She had the same first name as my paternal grandmother, a coincidence the two of them discovered the time my grandma visited my school for Grandparents' day. As any good librarian ought, Mrs. White read us stories. One of the stories was about a badger or raccoon or some other animal that "washed its paws." This made me and my classmate giggle because it sounded so silly. We were admonished for giggling. But... PAWS!
Our class went to the school library weekly, but I had no interest in any books unless I had already read (or heard) them. I learned where to find the Peggy Parish (Amelia Bedelia) and Judith Viorst (Alexander) books, and usually headed straight to those sections.
Whenever we checked out books we had to fill in our name and info. on cards that we took out of pockets in the back of the library book. We then put these cards in a class folder.
One day, the librarian read us a picture book about a hamster. I enjoyed the book and sought to check it out. The librarian tried to stop me from checking it out because she thought it'd be too hard for me to read. My teacher interjected: it's okay, I was a fair enough reader and should be fine. I got the book home and realized... it was written entirely in cursive. Well -- at least the pictures were fun!
Age 9-11. I was now old enough to visit the intermediate library at school. The librarian here was named Mrs. Wurm. We started every library session by her singing: Good morning, class! We were instructed to sing back, Good morning, Mrs. Wurm! To this day, I seethe when I hear teachers making their students do this type of thing (it is very rare, but still.) Mrs. Wurm introduced us to Beverly Cleary, the lovely land of New Zealand, and Tomes & Talismans, a pre-apocalyptic, library-centric PBS miniseries that I'm fairly certain we never saw the end of but that lives rent-free in my brain to this day.
It was here that I was introduced to my first non-Commodore computer, an Apple Macintosh that had a mouse (not a real mouse, kids!). I became obsessed with clicking and dragging.
Age 11. I was bussed to another school once a week for special classes. That library had the Mary Poppins books -- all of them. I was scandalized to learn that the Banks family was supposed to have more than two children! (Disney, what did you do with John, Barbara and Annabel!?)
One day we were given an assignment to cull a book -- ie, find one on the shelves that was out-of-date, irrelevant, or whatever. I found a book about motorcycles in the reference section that read like it was written for 1-year-olds. It was so pitiful, I thought for sure I'd found a winner (loser?) But when I presented it to the librarian, she wanted me to make a case for it. Make a case for it? Certainly it spoke for itself! LOOK AT IT! I now understand what she was trying to do, but at the time I was utterly appalled by how clueless she seemed.
Age 12. Middle school. On the second day of school, during lunch, I sat down next to a girl I didn't know and we clicked. She asked if I'd been to the school library yet; I hadn't, so she led the way. (You could go there after lunch instead of going outside.) I read so many books from this library during my two years at that school -- specifically, I remember Just as Long as We're Together, Matilda, and the delightful 80s time capsule Beverly Clearly's Ramona - Behind the Scenes of a Television Show. That REM "Read" poster was on one of the walls. Eventually I started volunteering there during my non-class times, checking out and receiving books, shelving, etc.
Age 13-16. For some reason our local public library decided to stop putting "date due" cards in paperbacks, perhaps to prepare for their upcoming renovations. This induced people to check out books and never return them. I got a few BSC books this way, but also felt bad about it. The library eventually was demolished, and a newer, bigger building took its place. There were hardly any paperback books in the new library. They didn't want the BSC books back. The library had lost its appeal to me. It took me a long time to want to go back there.
Those are my childhood memories associated with The Library.
