6 posts tagged “childhood”

Kristine shared a library meme a few days ago, and I've had it on my list of things I want to do since I read it. Yay libraries!

1. How old were you when you got your first library card?

My mom loves to tell this story for some reason, so I guess this is for her. My family went to the library at least once a week, and I got it in my head when I was four years old that I needed to have a library card of my own. I asked the librarian at our local library, which was a small country library that was absolutely wonderful with the most awesome librarians, how I could get my own library card. She told me that I needed to be able to write my name on the little paper card.

I could write parts of my name but it was in that big scrawl that kids have, and that wouldn't fit on the library card. I went back to my mom and told her that I was going to get my library card the next time we were at the library. Over the next few days, she and my dad must have helped me write my name hundreds of times, and each time, it got a little clearer and a little smaller. And I did get my own library card the next week.

It ended up being a little embarrassing because the librarians put up a little display with my photo as the youngest person in the county with a library card. (I did mention that it was a tiny little country library, right? LOL) I probably still have that little yellow card in my one of my keepsake boxes at my parents' house.

2. What’s the first book you can remember reading from a library?

Wow, I honestly don't know. I was really into kids' books from the 1940s and 50s for a while like the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books by Maud Hart Lovelace that Kristine mentioned along with the Eddie and Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood and the Borrowers series by Mary Norton. I loved series (and still do) because I liked going back and seeing all my friends again, and I probably got hooked on older books because my library had a lot of those.

3. Did you ever participate in a summer reading program or other kids’ event at a library growing up?

Of course! I participated every summer I was eligible. We had a limit of 20 books per person out at a time, and I was checking out and reading 20 every week, which made some people think I was lying to get to the top of the list of participants, which really upset me, so then I really did start lying and halved my weekly totals. The librarians caught on to what I was doing and were so sweet in talking with me and letting me know that they knew I really was reading those books and that it wasn't anything I needed to be worried about.

4. Do you remember when card catalogues weren’t computerized?

Yep! Sometimes I miss digging through that big cabinet with the little stepladder that I had to pull out in order to be able to reach the top row of drawers. And related to that, I loved seeing the history of all the names that had checked out a book before me on the card inside the book. I kind of miss that too even though I love being able to browse and reserve books online like we can do now.

5. When was the last time you went to the library?

This is really sad to me, but it's been a long time. The libraries closest to us have some funky hours that seem to change all the time, and they're not that convenient to where we live. The last couple of times that Matt and I have seriously looked at buying a house, I've been focused on neighborhoods within walking distance of one of the good libraries. Heck, it wouldn't even need to be one of the nice ones with all the inter-library loans you can do now. I could sign in online and request whatever I wanted and then just walk to the library when I got the email saying they were ready for me. That sounds like a little slice of heaven right now.

6. How many books do you usually check out of the library at one time?

It varies, but I usually get a good stack of maybe 5-10 books at least.

7. Name one great author you’ve discovered at your library.

I became really hooked on the Castle series by John DeChancie years ago because those were shelved near the Charles de Lint books, and one of his covers caught my eye. I read the whole series in a week or so, and then decided it was one of those series that I really needed to own, so I spent a few months looking for them at used bookstores to find just the ones I wanted. Some of the editions had better covers than others, and I wanted ones in good condition that looked like they belonged together. I'm a little obsessed with details at times.

8. What was the librarian at your elementary school like?

I could never ever in a thousand years say enough good things about Ms. Wilma Greene. She was seriously like another grandmother to me, and she always had book suggestions for me. She talked to me about books like she really cared what I thought and what I liked. As I entered the upper grades of our school (4th and 5th grades), she let me help her select books for the younger classes, and I'd write up reviews to share with teachers and parents. I felt like such an important person! She did wonderful things for my self-esteem, and I just loved her.

I saw her for the last time right before Matt and I were married in 1996, and we had a huge love fest because we each had some happy memories of the other. I heard that she died a few years ago, and I've looked for confirmation of that here and there, but I've never been able to find out for sure. She was one of the most influential people in my life as a little girl, and I was so lucky to have known her for all those years.

9. How many times a year do you go to the library?

As I mentioned before, we don't go nearly as often as I'd like, but we usally make it there 15-20 times a year.

10. If you could change one thing about your library, what would it be and why?

I'd pull it a few miles closer! :D

Thanks to Krissy, Phisch, and Amy for playing along with my "two truths and a lie" post.

Item #1 that I was kicked out of children's choir for noting that ewes and rams are different is technically true though oversimplified a bit. We were doing a program called something something like All We Like Sheep, which was a strange children's musical with talking animals learning about forgiveness if I recall correctly. All I really remember is that the two main characters were a ram named Ramsey and an ewe named Eunice. The ram had the biggest speaking/singing part and I was one of the better ones in the choir for memorizing parts, so they decided to make the character a girl by changing the name to Ramona in order for me to play the part .

I pointed out that it was silly to change the name to Ramona since Ramsey and Eunice were supposed to be playing off "ram" and "ewe". I suggested either leaving it a boy part with me still doing it or coming up with another "ewe" name. The director had a meltdown and kicked me out of choir for "trying to shame an authority figure". I was overjoyed because my mom had been "encouraging" me to stay in the choir even though I didn't want to be there. They later tried to get me to come back to the choir, but my mom gave them a piece of her mind about the whole silly situation, and that was the end of children's choir for me! The next year I was able to join youth choir because I started middle school, and that was much better.

The second item about never being a vegetarian because I could never give up steak is definitely a lie, which Krissy correctly guessed. I'm actually not a big fan of steak. During my years as a vegetarian, the only non-vegetarian item I really missed were bacon cheeseburgers. I'm a simple girl.

I also really hate raw meat, so cooking with meat is a little bit of a hurdle for me. (And that aversion is something I still don't really understand because I dealt with a lot worse than a little raw meat on my grandparents' farm.) If Matt were willing to give up meat, we'd definitely be vegetarians at home at least. Oh, I also said in that item that I don't like most vegetables, and that's a lie too. At the moment, I can't think of any vegetable I don't like unless you count tomatoes as a vegetable. I do not like tomatoes at all.

Then there's the third item about wanting 26 children. That was actually a reduction from the number I mentioned when I was really young. My earliest opinion on the matter was that I wanted to adopt a boy and a girl from every country in the world. I think I was fixated on my coloring book with all the little kids dressed in native costumes.

Then I realized there were a lot of countries, so I cut that number by half and said I'd just adopt one child from each country. I got a little older and came up with the coolness of using the alphabet to name my 26 children. At one point, I had all the names picked out with A-Z for the first names and Z-A for the middle names in the style of Abigail Zinnia to Zoe Amalia or Andrew Zane to Zachary Asher. Then I decided an even dozen would be a good number.

Matt was thankful that I'd dropped down to wanting four kids by the time we got married. Now I'm 31, and we've been married for close to 11 years with no kids and no kids planned for the future. It's funny how plans change over the years. Sometimes, that makes me sad, and other times, I don't even think about it one way or the other.

This is like a mashup of my childhood in some ways with those great late nights watching Monty Python and StarTrek with my dad after everyone else had gone to bed. It's silly, and I love it. You'll have to click through to YouTube to watch it because the creator doesn't allow embedding.

Who is your favorite Muppet? Why?
QotD submitted by knitwitology.vox.com.

My immediate response was Miss Piggy, but then I feel kind of bad leaving out Kermit because he's cool too. I just love Muppets in general to be honest. I remember reading a quote from Jim Henson once where he said Miss Piggy wants everyone to treat her like a lady and if they don't, then she'll cut them in half. I think that's part of her charm for me.

Speaking of Muppets, there are some Muppet mp3s at Muppet Musique, including Miss Piggy's workout album with the classic song "Lift the One You Love".

What was your most memorable or favorite school field trip?

The 1982 World’s Fair was held in my hometown, and for some crazy reason, my kindergarten class went on a field trip there. It was a bit overwhelming for kids that age, and I don’t remember much of anything about the fair itself. We had enough parent chaperones that each group only had two kids in it, and I was very excited because both my parents were going with me. The other girl assigned to my parents had major issues going on at home (not that I knew that then) and was an extremely anxious child. Looking back, I’m sure my parents were selected as her chaperones because they volunteered in my classroom a lot and weren’t complete strangers to her and because they were known to be generous and patient. They treated Mary just like one of their own kids and bought her treats and souvenirs just like they did with me. Unfortunately, the fair was really too much for Mary to handle, and she was sick to her stomach the entire day. She threw up in some very creative places when the bathroom lines were too long, and if she wasn’t puking, she needed to pee. I definitely wouldn't call that my favorite field trip, but it was memorable.

My favorite field trip was our 8^th grade trip to Williamsburg, VA. Our class spent spring break there, and we split our time between Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. I have some wonderful memories from that week.

I was a huge Pac-Man fan as a kid, and I also loved any racing game that was set up like a real car. During college, I went through a pinball phase, and my best friend and I would relieve stress by going to the local arcade and playing Star Trek and Terminator 2 pinball.

I haven't been to an arcade in ages, but I do play a fair amount of computer games. I was crazy about World of Warcraft, but I'm finding I'm less and less interested in it lately. I've gone back to Sims 2 over the last week or so.