Reading for Fun

I think I may have been a strange little kid. Not that I wasn't liked, but I preferred reading to spending time with my friends. I did all the usual things, played baseball with the neighbor kids, took school-sponsored swimming lessons, and put on plays with my siblings for the other kids, but reading was my joy.

We always had books in the house and my parents gave us free rein to read whatever we felt like. I read everything. When I was old enough to walk to the library and be responsible for my younger siblings, my mother let us go there to pick up books for her and for ourselves. I loved those summer afternoons, and can still picture the cool, quiet rooms of our town library after the mile-long walk from our house in the bright sun and leafy shadows. It was pure happiness.

The librarian got to know us and would choose books for our mother while we chose our own. Later on, she would let me me go behind the desk and choose books from the adult section, forbidden territory for children.  We continued these excursions for years. When I reached high school, this same librarian became the school librarian for our new library, and I eventually had her as my teacher for a couple of English and Latin classes.  When I applied for my first job after college, her reference cinched it for me, and that's how I ended up with the library position that I loved so much. She was one person in authority with whom I never felt like a scared little girl.