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| Photo courtesy of Ferguson Library (Stamford, CT) |
I was raised on books, and even though we live in the age of the Internet, kids aren't reading enough. They still need books. And I'm so grateful I had access to all the books I wanted!
Dr. Seuss was well-known in our house. Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat, Are You My Mother? One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Fox in Socks, Hop on Pop. And then there were Seuss-like books such as A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer ("Never feed him a lot, feed him only a spot!"), where a little boy feeds his fish Otto so much he grows to the size of a swimming pool and a man has to come and shrink him back down to size.
I remember when I was four, my sister Diane was five, and you had to be five to have a library card, so she had one and I didn't. And one afternoon my grandmother Ellen was taking Diane to the library and I wanted to go. Grandma said I couldn't go because I didn't have a library card. I still remember like it was yesterday being about as angry as any child could get. It was like there was smoke coming out of my ears. And I remember saying with as much hateful vengence as any four-year-old could muster, "I can't wait until I'm five and I can get a library card!"
Once I turned five, I made as much use of the library as any child could. I feel fortunate to have grown up in a city with a big beautiful, state-of-the-art library. Over the years, I not only took books out, I bought books, I donated books, I used the microfiche (yes I'm that old) to research things in old copies of the city newspaper, the Stamford Advocate. I even attended their annual Book and Author Luncheons a couple of times and got to listen to famous authors in person.
One day, I bought a record album—The Best of Bread—and I was too impatient to wait to get home to hear it so I went right next door to the library where you could get a set of headphones at the front desk and sit and listen to a record on a turntable. Truth be told I was 16 years old and I was stoned, and Bread was phenomenal music to listen to when you were stoned. Then along came a friend from school. He was stoned too and I told him to go the desk and get a set of headphones, because there were two ports in the record player. So we just sat there for an hour high as a kite not just listening to the music but feeling the music! It was an experience I will never forget.
We also had a bookmobile. When we lived on Dora Street I would walk about a half mile to get to it. When we moved in Sylvan Knoll, it pulled up right in front of the parking lot in front of my house. I remember the summer I was 14, I spent hardly any time outside in the sun and heat. Every Wednesday, I would load my arms up with eight hardcover books and walk back to the house. I read a book a day and by the time the bookmobile came back around I was done with all of them!
Our mom also bought into a couple of books-by-mail programs—one for me and one for my sister. And even though I loved mine, Diane's were way better than mine. Each one was a classic: Treasure Island, Jungle Book...I couldn't wait for Diane to finish them so I could pick them up. I didn't just read them, I devoured them.
Today, libraries have movie theaters where they play free movies, and they're usually well known. They rent videos and CDs, have book sales so you can buy books for your own collection, and offer a multitude of classes such as dance, exercise, computers, and English as a Second Language.
If you're a parent, please take the time to read to your kids. It's the best way for them to get the reading bug. Join your local library and get them excited about finding books they haven't read yet. And if you read to them, they'll read to their kids too!
If you like fiction, please read my novel. It's a story of strength and success, but it has plenty of crime, deceit, backstabbing, and of course, love. Find In Fashion's Web on Amazon. It's available in print, on Kindle and on Audible.
