Dewey Eyed

 

I was watching the CBS Sunday Morning show and they had a segment on there about modern libraries. It was very interesting and it made me think. When was the last time I used a library? Six years ago I voted in the local Chicago Library branch in my neighborhood, but that really didn't count. About fifteen years ago I got a library card from the Wilton Manors, Florida library so I could take out a couple of audio books. That was for our road trip to Chicago that summer. Before that the only time I remember going to the library was forty four years ago in Oakland, California. I was living in Oakland and I had a kitten that the little girl next door gave me. Her cat had a litter and they were so damn cute I had to have one. I soon found out it was infested with fleas. Anyway, that kitten made a sound that reminded me of the Russian word for no. "Nyet, nyet, nyet!" Not meow, or mew, but nyet. So I wanted to name her after Nikita  Khrushchev's wife. In 1978 there was no internet. There were no personal computers, no smart phones. No, you had to go to the library to find things out. Which is what I did. Mrs. Khrushchev's name was Nina, so I named my kitten Nina. That was three times I used the library since high school. Before that I went to the library quite often. The Tinley Park Library, my high school library, and in junior high school I would use Mrs. Sandidge's very special library. Central Junior High had no regular library that I remember. Just the little library that Mrs. Sandidge, our history teacher, had in the back of her classroom. A bunch of books and magazines that had some connection with history. It was my favorite library of all. That's the library where I found a book with the whole story about the Fatty Arbuckle incident. A very detailed description of the Fatty Arbuckle incident. You sure learned things in Mrs. Sandidge's library.

(click here for the story of Fatty Arbuckle)