BTT this week is asking us about our earliest library memories.
I started reading voraciously in the fifth grade. This was back in the late 50's and I was allowed to walk to the library by myself. I was ten years old and the library was at least a mile away!
But so worth it!
It was my second home. I can remember staring at all the books there and feeling so rich.
Most of the time I'd stay a couple hours just running my fingers over the spines and pulling a book out occasionally to look it over, taking my time to pick out the four I would check out.
Sometimes I'd sit and begin one right there delaying the time when I'd have to return home to do my chores or homework.
I wanted this place to be my bedroom.
But, alas, I'd eventually leave,
walk through the vacant lot between the fire station and the bowling alley,
become a tightrope walker as I balanced on the train tracks,
cut through a yard near my elementary school,
stop at Bob's store for a York Peppermint Patty,
take a shortcut by Julie's Cafe,
cross more train tracks,
meander up a wooded path hoping the old men who lived in shacks weren't outside,
emerge onto Wight St. and walk up the sidewalk for awhile,
then cross the heavily-travelled route 110 onto Fifth Avenue
and I'd be back home from the library.
6 comments:
Good times.
I was allowed to go to the library on my own too - the world seemed a safer place then, but I do remember being warned not to speak to strangers.
I've always felt at home in a library.
I know those feelings. Wonderful, isn't it?
I always take my time choosing a book in the library.
I came to read your 3WW, but it couldn't complete the request and I can't find it? If you wanted to leave the URL on my blog, I'd love to read what you wrote this week! :)
What a wonderful post, Linda! The library I frequented as a child was too far away for me to walk to--but that was probably better since sometimes I checked out so many books that carrying them home might have been a problem. :-)
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