The Case of The Missing Library Card

Today is the day my library books are due. Except, I am not ready to return them yet. I am still reading and going back and looking at some pictures in others. And a few I need to copy down a couple of recipes yet. So, I went to my wallet to pull out my trusty library card to go online and renew my books. My card was not there. I looked on the floor by my purse. No card. I gathered up the library books and went through all of them, page by page. My card was not in any of them. I came into the office and moved everything around on my desk. Still no card.

By now I am panicking. How can I renew my books without my card? I will have to turn all my books in today and I didn't want to do that. Did somebody find my card laying on the ground at the library and use it? Did they turn it in? I remember when I was checking out the last time at that self-serve machine, there was a lady behind me in line and I didn't want to hold her up, so instead of taking the extra minute to return my card into my wallet, I quickly stuck in one of the books along with the printout slip of the books I had just checked out. So I went through each of the books again, so slowly. No card. I grabbed every purse in the house that I have used within the last month and dumped everything out of them. Where or where could that card be? Then I came back into the office and removed everything from my desk. Why or why did I not just take the few extra seconds to put my card in my wallet? How am I going to live without a library card???? I know, they are only $2 to get a replacement, but I hate standing in lines and there is always a line at the librarian counter.



Every since I was a little girl, I have loved to read. I loved library day at school. I read all of the Mrs. Goose chapter books. Maybe those books are what made me fall in love with barnyard animals. A few of the books I loved reading were Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Meg series, The Bobbsey Twins, the Little House in the Big Woods series, and many more books like those. My favorite chapter series books were Cherry Ames. She was a nurse and the series started out with her nursing school days and then she got to work in every field of nursing imaginable. It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized her books were written during WW2 - my most favorite time period in history.

There are many books I remember reading as a kid that have stuck in my mind for all these years, and I will be 49 next weekend. That is a long time for a book to remain vivid in your imagination. One book in particular I remember is Gilda. The story was about a young girl and her migratory farm working family. The story took place during the summertime and it was the summertime that I read it. When I think of summers, I think of the hot days her family stayed in places with no air conditioning. My parents did not have air conditioning while I was growing up (and still don't), so it wasn't too hard for me to get my imagination wrapped up in that book!

This is the book currently sitting on the table by my chair in the living roon:

As I grew older I fell in love with history and biographies of famous leaders of this country. Our junior high library had a whole wall of biographies of great people such as Benjamine Franklin and John Adams. I think I read every book they had on our founding fathers. Bits and pieces of those books pop out of the cobwebby recesses of my brain whenever I watch or read something today on those long ago patriots.

I can't remember if I have told this story yet or not, bare with me if I am repeating myself! When I was 17 I watched Gone With The Wind for the first time. They ran the movie over two days and my sister Lyn and I got to stay up to watch it. That movie scared me and thrilled me all at the same time. A few months after watching the movie, I read the book. The book was much better than the movie. So much of the book was left out of the movie. One day I had stayed home from school sick and I was sitting downstairs in the rocking chair reading that book. I was at the place where Sherman was entering Atlanta and burning the city down. Melanie was in the throes of childbirth and Scarlet was trying to do her best to be a midwife and get them packed up and outta there. My mom came into the room to let me know that she was on her way to pick up my brother, Paul, from school. She said "I'm going to get Paul now." I jumped and said "No, Mom, you can't go out there, they're burning the city already! The yankees are here!" She started laughing at me.

Yes, I do have a very vivid imagination.

All through the years I have fond memories of lying on the cool, playroom floor reading away on the hottest of summer days. When I was in junior high, my mom's foster mom lived behind us. I have a very clear memory of showing her the new book I was reading while we stood at the back chain link fence talking on a summer day that was dreary and muggy, off in the distance there was rumbling thunder. I even remember the book I showed her. Meg and the Disappearing Diamonds.

To this day I love to read. I would rather read a book than watch tv or go to the movies. I love using my imagination and getting lost in a book. I keep thinking I prefer to read non-fiction such as any book on homemaking, sewing and other crafts, gardening, cookbooks, books on history or people of days gone by. But that really isn't so. I love reading Grace Livingston Hill books. I have collected a ton of old fiction books that were written at the turn of the century or later that I read over and over. And, I confess, I have been known to go to the children's section of the library and check out chapter books or even younger children's books to read at night before I go to sleep. When you come to my house you will always see 5 or 6 books scattered around that are in the process of being read.

I collect old textbooks from grade school through college. I buy books at garage sales, thrift stores, on ebay and Amazon, at the Friend's of the Library booksales. Very rarely do I buy a book that was just published.

This is the book currently on my nightstand that I am reading when I crawl into bed:

Our daughter, Jennifer, sent me an email this morning to let me know that she has my car candles to send me. She sells Scentsy candles and I ordered some nice smelling freshners for our car. Poor girl, I lamented about how I could not find my library card. The world had stopped as I knew it. Is life worth living without a library card to check out more books to read??? Hardly, I just don't think I can go through these withdrawals... sniffle.... sob.

I finished my email to her and slowly drug myself into the living room. On the table near Jerry's chair was the book I had checked out for him. I had forgotten about that book. Could it be.... I wonder... Oh! Happy days are here again!! I found my card. I had tucked it in the card pocket inside of the book I got for Jerry. Oh, life is good again. Life is so very good again!!!

I am almost done with the book about the history of Betty Crocker. I think I will read this book next as I am falling asleep at night:

I could use a good story from the days when life was more slower without computers and tvs. A story set in a small, East Coast town back during the turn of the century. My imagination is ready to reread Anne of Green Gables again. Have you ever seen the movie? You should, it will definitely give you pleasant dreams about open fields and life as it used to be lived and modest dresses and old fashioned church socials. Better yet, go to your local library and check out the book.