In elementary school, my favorite day was Thursday,
because it was Library Day.
I could hardly wait to enter the small library at the end of the upstairs
hallway, past the water fountain, next to the double doors.
It didn't matter that the librarian, Mrs. R., had a nasty temper.
Oh, I noticed her saggy scowl deepen as we filed into her domain,
but I knew her anger wouldn't lash in my direction.
Mrs. R. took no notice of the nerdy girl with too-large glasses
engrossed in selecting her next Nancy Drew adventure.
The lumpish mole between her eyebrows quivered and protruded
as she pounded tables and flung periodicals at naughty boys—
Mrs. R. did dislike those grade-school boys.
I identified.
So while she tossed plastic chairs and whoever sat in them,
I opened books and trained Big Red with Danny or wandered the dump
with the Boxcar Children, searching for barely-chipped china plates.
The hoofbeats of the Black Stallion, the King of the Wind, and their Island counterparts
drowned out the rantings of that long-ago, rural-Kentucky librarian.
And really, what could be more riveting than Miss Hickory's dark relationship
with the squirrel?
Not much ...
I wonder if you remember your earliest librarian.
Did she teach you to love reading or
did you learn to love reading in spite of her?
Which books were your favorite childhood escapes?
I'd love to know.
I don't remember any particular librarian but my dad was an avid reader so we always had books. A friend of the family worked at a city library and she would send us boxes of books that had been weeded out because they were too worn. That was always an exciting day, to see what books had come. I also loved Nancy Drew,and The Railway Children, The Secret Garden and the Five Children and It series. I was also a big fan of the Mary Poppins books which I revisited as an adult and wondered why I found them comforting. I still love books.
ReplyDeleteBoxes of books --- a dream come true!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these memories, Jenny.