wild curly hair & libraries

She caught my eye because she has all this fabulous red, curly, wild, untamable great hair. No, not Sweet Liberty our Golden Retriever, I’m thinking about my librarian at my favorite branch. Yup, she is all mine, always working, always ready to help me. Well, I guess she helps other people when I am not there. I complimented her on her locks. She asked if mine was naturally curly as well. I smiled. In a weird way, it was nice not to be judged, it was sweet just to fit in. Even though there were only two of us in the club, it was a curly girl’s only club. Side note: a few years back the morning I turned 40, I stopped blow drying and then curling my hair. I just washed it, scrunched it and let it dry, wild and curly. ………..Focus……..stay focused …I think today, “they” would say I was not good at paying attention and staying focused , maybe even take some type of medicine……back in the olden days they just said I never stopped moving and fidgeting. Young ladies do not fidget.
I love libraries. I love the smell and the feel and the sounds and the order and the cleanliness, the politeness and the architecture. I love that everyone seems to use good manners while visiting a library. I LOVE all the possibilities. I love having the boyfriend carry all my books to the car. He always weaves into the conversation “think you got enough this time?” love that
I loved when son number 2 was old enough to read the time on the microwave and would yell “its 10:10, we have to hurry!” Story time in Oklahoma started at 10:30 am. We never missed a Thursday. He would never go anywhere alone, except that little room with the glass door and sit with the other short people. It was 45 minutes of quiet magazine reading time for me. “Yahoo” (they say that in Oklahoma, I wanted to fit in). Heck, he was even in a television commercial to promote getting a library card, paid with a brand new book of course. He didn’t really understand what television was, however, for a shy kid, he figured out, you say what they want you to say and you get a free book. Okay, I can do that.
We kept the date the same, during those Home schooling years, Thursday was our library day. Each short person in our family was only allowed to check out 10 books at a time. My thinking here was that I could maybe manage to keep track of 20 books a week, plus the books that mom and dad checked out…..strange as it sounds, we have paid (which I still see has a GREAT bargain) more library fines since the boys went off to college than at any time put together while they were living with us! We only paid for one “lost” book over all those years. After yet another military move years later, we found said book.
Christy, which is my all time favorite curly, red haired librarian, has helped me find books or articles that I am researching. She has mentioned the wild outdoor weather we were having instead of my wild hair that day. Last summer before family came to visit, she has helped me lug 25 huge, and I mean heavy and huge coffee table books I ordered all about the Pacific Northwest, out to my car. She knows my favorite authors and favorite genres.
Our little library now has fancy schmancy computers where you check out your own books. Yes, even I order books on line and go pick them up instead of just meandering isle after isle to see if something catches my eye. More folks are checking out videos than books. You no longer even have to stamp the due date on each book. Each time I stop in, more and more people are on the computers then are browsing for books. I am sad and scared. One, I don’t embrace change. Two, libraries are one of life’s “good things”. Why does public funding seem to get smaller and smaller each go round? Less funds, means less librarians & libraries.
Last stop we made into the library, Christy commented on my great new wild sparkle sneakers. I said they were to celebrate. We were going to be grandparents in August. I thought “hip” grandmas wore things like that. She said she has FIVE grandbabies and LOVES every single moment and she too wants some “hip” grandma shoes! Hallelujah! Now, we not only have in common great curly hair, the love of books, now we get to talk grandbabies and smile the entire time while doing so. ………life is good, just in case you forgot.