A few moments with my elders

When #1 started school, we parents got a list ... a very long list ... of volunteer opportunities and were asked to prioritize our top 5 areas of interest. Fundraising was out - I already spend a lot of time doing that for another organization. Auction committee is also out for this year - see reason above for fundraising. I scanned the list and "library" popped out and it was done. I found my St. Pat's job for the year.

This library is like walking into a Barnes & Noble - minus the coffee bar and snazzy jazz tunes in the background. There are comfy arm chairs for curling up and snuggling in with your favorite volume of The Boxcar Children. There are small tables and chairs for the littlest kids to sit together and look at picture books or Dr. Seuss. There is a huge bay window with 2 risers underneath - a perfect book nook for classroom story time with one of the 2 librarians. And the computers for the big kids - for research and I'm sure lots of things the librarians don't know about.

The library itself is gorgeous, but that's the last reason why I wanted to take on this job. There is just something about being in a library that makes me happy. It is quiet, it smells good ... it's just peaceful. Maybe it is the memories I have of visiting my grandparents during the holidays in Chicago. My Grandma Betty worked in the book department at Marshall Field's for years and we would always have at least one trip to the book department on each visit. My Grandma would show me new titles and I wanted nothing to do with any reading at all. She would try and convince me that I would enjoy this new book. I knew I would enjoy it more if someone were reading it to me, rather than me struggling through the pages myself. But she tried and I appreciate that.

The library peace could also come from my memories of story time with Mrs. Raths. Mrs. Raths was one of my Dad's patients, and would invite my sister and me to tea parties on Sunday afternoons. This is how I knew her first - as a wonderful surrogate grandmother who lived up on a hill with lots and lots ... and LOTS of hand bells. But the rest of my elementary school knew her as the lovely, 100 year old, lady who came to school every other week and read stories in the library. It was a treat to have your class invited for story time with Mrs. Raths.

Whatever it is that gives me library peace ... it is there and it is welcome. Every other Monday for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon I check out books to a 1st grade class (and wow do I have things to look forward to), I check in books that have been returned and I re-shelve books. I am learning the Dewey Decimal System all over again. And most importantly, I am reliving a few fabulous moments of my own from nearly 30 years ago. I love what school is bringing me.