A Childhood In "The Stacks"

There is something I have always loved about books.  One of my favorite places as a child was the Northborough Free Library.  They had this amazing children's room with places to lounge around and read Clifford The Big Red Dog or the Hungry Caterpillar, whatever you wanted.  Once I moved out of that room and into the "big kid area" I discovered Nancy Drew, the Boxcar Children and the Hardy Boys.  I loved that these seemingly tangible characters used their intellect and their problem solving skills to survive in the wilderness, figure out the mystery behind the old clock, and whatever else came their way all without the supervision of an adult.  I really identified with their insatiable curiosities.  I spent my summers climbing through the woods behind my childhood home, sitting outside watching meteor showers with my Dad, riding my bike so quickly down the Cherry Street hill that I would tip over and skin the bejesus out of my scrawny knees.  I secretly hoped that I would see a ghost in that library, a la Ghostbusters I guess.  I loved the smell of the old books, their crunchy pages and crumbling bindings.  I loved reading the library checkout cards to see the last time someone took it home and how long it had been in circulation.  I never dreaded looking for books in the card catalogue, the organized files mesmerized me.  Yes, I was an elementary school kid, and yes, it was odd.  There was just something about being a child with a very colorful imagination that made everything at that library so incredibly interesting.

I'm sure that if you asked my parents about this they would agree that I did have a very colorful imagination.  I loved to sing with tapes and records, put on "plays" in the living room, and build forts out of anything nearby.  I do not believe that they would think I had had a thing for organization or cleanliness.  In fact, I don't even think my husband would disagree with that last sentence.  The truth is, I loved the library because I had a fascination with learning about and understanding life's mysteries.  To a child, the world is a wondrous, somewhat frightening place and I had a thirst to learn everything about it.  To me, everything in this world is a puzzle with thousands of tiny pieces.  But, like with all puzzles, you must find the edges before you can put together the middle and see the big picture.  The library was the place where I found my edges.