Scrapping with Liz ~ Artsy Journal Templates 22
Forever Joy ~ For the Record
Little Butterfly Wings & Studio Basic ~ Bookholic
Lynn Grieveson ~ Not Quite White
Font ~ LaCarmella
Journaling 585 words not counting the quote.
My earliest memories revolve around letters, numbers, and reading. I can remember reading the back of an oil can with my daddy. I remember the quality of light in my pre-school and the letters of my name on the desk. I remember the library in my elementary school.
I was reading before I went to kindergarten. Kids didn't believe me. They thought I had memorized the books. I couldn't believe it! I remember pointing out the words as I read them. Even then I had conviction in myself and just let them think as they wanted. I knew I could read.
In elementary I remember we went to the library once a week. I would finish my book fast and wish for another. Waiting was really hard. I also grew out of the kids' section fast. It was a little boring.
My love of reading really took off on a family vacation. I picked up a copy of Gone With The Wind from the house and took it with us. I read every chance I could get. The car, the camper, the picnic table. After we got home I was constantly begging my mom to take me to the library.
After getting my driver's license, the first place I drove by myself was to the library. I remember just glorying in the atmosphere and happiness of being at the library and able to stay as long as I wanted. No rushing or having to get out of my head.
I graduated high school and entered college. I spent many happy hours at the campus library. This was during the time of transition from card catalogs to computers. There was a bank of computers in front of the card catalogs. Time moved swiftly and as I continued my college career the card catalogs disappeared, and everything became computerized. I adored the keyword search. It made it even easier to fall down the rabbit hole of interesting information.
I married, graduated college, moved to another town. The first thing I found was my way to the library. Just going inside and breathing deep relaxed me in a way nothing else could.
My husband joined the Army. We moved overseas. My first question when we arrived, "Where is the library." That was a great one. The librarians worked with me to read all of Anne McCaffery's books. We printed a list and checked them off one at a time borrowing books from all over Europe.
We moved back to the States. While there was a small library on post there was a larger one downtown. While we lived there the city built a brand-new state of the art library. I watched in fascination as it was finished and was there the minute the doors opened to the new facility. My daughter even had her picture in the newspaper.
We moved again and technology continued to advance. Now I live in a tiny town. They recently finished building a new library facility and I have made friends with all the librarians. My friends and I meet there every Friday to stitch together. I have access to the card catalog online and the ability to hold books from all over the state. They even have e-books to borrow. With the Virtual Library I can access information from all over the world and borrow books from other library systems.
I truly hope and pray that the dystopian stories of the future do not come to be. There should always be libraries.
