Books became my friends when I was a child, sounds a little cliché I know, but it was true.  My family moved every year, sometimes more than once in a year.  I never went to the same school twice or lived in the same city or town, which made it hard to make and keep friends.  However, I always knew where the library was located.  Every time we moved, I didn’t want to unpack my boxes or play with my toys; I wanted to find the library.  I would bug my mom every day until she took me down to get my library card and books, lots of books.  The good ones where the ones that were in walking distance from the house, those I could go to all the time on my own.  The others I would have to wait for a ride.  It’s funny now, as I can drive myself, but I still like to live walking distance from the library, my current apartment is only ½ mile away.

I grew up in the inner city in uptown New Orleans. The public library was the old style Carnegie type building. This is the place I went to meet girls. I did check out a book every once in a while but mostly I checked out the girls. I quickly discovered at the age of about 13 that this was the place that girls hung out.

Years ago my nephew used to go to the library in Centralia “regularly”. He was such a regular user in fact that I when I was the lead in the Circulation Dept. at the Washington State Library, I went to a meeting for Innovative users and the librarian from the Centralia Timberland Library introduced me as Paul’s Aunt. I got a big applause. It still brings a smile to my face when I think about it. My family has always been big library users, as you can tell.

I remember the Librarian in my home town was my best friend’s Mom, so I knew her pretty well. Of course there was a limit on the number of books you could get, and I would get the maximum but some for my little brother too. I sort of remember reading to him, and then counting them up when it was time to go back to make sure we had all of them. We carried them in brown grocery bags. I remember books on cassette that came in plastic bags with handles. And later I discovered Nancy Drew and EM Kerr and the Oz books. I have a clear memory of reading a library book in the summer, under a tree in the front yard, lying on an inflatable rubber tube covered with a blanket. That Librarian’s name is Diane, and her daughter is still my best friend, and she is still the Librarian in that town. In fact her son grew up to be a Librarian too; he is a teen librarian in the next town over.

Our shared memories about libraries will now be posted.  Sorry for the delay, the first one will be out today.  Enjoy reading about our memories of libraries and feel free to share some of yours in the comments.