This week's question is right up my alley:
"Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So …What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?"
I remember everything about going to the library when I was a child. I can still see my little brown plastic card, with my own name on it...I was so proud. I remember the smell of the building, the names and faces of the librarians, the exact layout. It's not there anymore, but it's frozen in my mind.
Our city's library used to be right by the pool, and my strongest memories are of my mother taking us by there on the way home from swimming during the summer. I remember going down the aisles in my coverup and flip flops, with damp hair and chlorine-scented skin, as I made my selections, savoring the thought of being home soon, in dry clothes and surrounded by books.
Can you tell I loved the library just a little bit? :)
What a sweet memory. I grew up in a small town and I don't remember the first time I went to the library. I suppose my Mom took me. I do remember being around 10 or so and walking home from the library with the limit of books in my arms - many times.
ReplyDeleteI have almost the exact same memory and would never have thought of it if not for your post. My mom and I had epic battles about whether or not I could take library books to read by the pool. I think I won, and I'm proud to report that I never lost even one.
ReplyDeleteI'm another who can remember walking home from the library with the limit number (5) of books in my arms.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the question! Library memories are just great and I loved and still love the smell of books. My mother took me to the library as she loved reading too. After she'd chosen her books she left me in the library whilst she went shopping - bliss.
ReplyDeleteI used love our library near our house as a kid. Now it is a church and the library has moved in kind of hidden area but to far to walk to.
ReplyDeleteI can not imagine being a book lover without also being a library lover. Here is my ode (LOL) entitled "Libraries I have Loved"
ReplyDeletehttp://everydaymatters.typepad.com/every_day_matters/2008/07/libraries-i-hav.html
JOANN, who does not know how to insert a link!
I remember by smells too...there's nothing like the smell of chlorine from the pool, and the smell of the books in the library!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a good question and a trip down memory lane. My first trip to the library was almost 50 years ago. The building was very very old and right next to City Hall. The children's room was in the basement and, i can recall joining the summer reading programs, the date due stamps on the pocket of each book I took out, and their paper card files..LOL The city where I grew up got a new "state of the art" library a few years ago, (my son still lives there), and I hope to get back there sometime to check it out. It is about 120 miles from where I now live.
ReplyDelete