Wednesday, May 31, 2017

LOVE LIBRARIES, LIBRARIANS

ASK A LIBRARIAN When in doubt ask a librarian. They are tantalized by curiosity, and are paid to curate, investigate, answer all manner of information or inquiry. I love libraries and love librarians. I recall reading in Richard Wright's BLACK BOY about this elaborate scheme he had to employ with unnamed decoys, just to be able to get the needed books out of the segregated Memphis, Tennessee Public Library in the 1930s era. He got them all as needed from there, race segregation notwithstanding! Knowledge is power! Public libraries are surging power plants . In June 1963, our family had first moved to Rockhill, Missouri from Kirkwood. As I was the eldest of six children, and responsible for each, I recall lining them all up in single file and walking up Rock Hill Road to the old Rock Hill Library that was then housed in a converted house. The librarians were helpful and friendly. We each checked out a book--mine was the history of China, too much for me then and now!--and we then returned home, laden with reading materials to divert us and to empower us at home , until Mama and Daddy came home from work. I was 12. Love librarians and librarians !