Librairies

I was four years old when I saw a picture of a small table and chairs surrounded by bookshelves. It was so appealing to me that I never forgot it, but it wasn't until a year later that I saw my first library at school. The idea that I could check out a book on the kindergarten shelf and take it home was like a dream come true.

I didn't really get to go to the public library until I was around eight or nine and even then it was a rare treat. Like so many other families back then, we were a one car family and libraries were not big on my mother's list of fun places to go, so school libraries were always high on my list of places to be.

As a teenager with a bicycle, I would often go to the Lincoln Library in Springfield and lose myself in the stacks. I remember sitting on that low stool with wheels on the glass floor of the balcony for hours on end. We didn't have the Internet back then, so being able to just delve through whatever my heart desired was an adventure that suited me perfectly.

In college I loved being able to wander through the old library, up spiral staircases, into little nooks and crannies, discovering hidden treasures like the Oxford English Dictionary, or a new set of ghost stories shelved in spooky old places.

I worked in a legal library for a large insurance company for a while before having children. One of the stranger things I did was iron newspapers!

When my youngest child started going to preschool two mornings a week I began volunteering in a school library. And I'm still doing it!

Different libraries at different times in my life, but always the places I felt most at home.