I grew up in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit and the third largest city in the state. My parents always took us to a library.  The Arthur J. Miller Branch of the Warren Public Library.  I can't remember my first visit but some of my earliest memories are of being at the library. I loved the children's section which wasn't very big at all compared to the children's sections in the Clermont County Libraries. Mom and dad would take us to the library every week and we waited in anticipation for library day.

When we were finally old enough mom would turn our library card over to us and let us ride our bikes to the library.  We would go in groups. Sometimes 6 or 7 of us. This entailed crossing over 2 major roads and to be able to ride your bike to the library was quite a status symbol in our neighborhood. In the summer the library had air conditioning.  We did not. So we pedaled almost two miles in the broiling heat and entered that cool cool building almost every day. As I got older I could stay for hours.  I would park the little rolling step stool in front of the section that held my fascination...animals, The Titanic, insects, Princess Anastasia, Crafts, Origami....pretty much the same things that kids read today. The librarian knew us all by name and she let us stay for as long as we wanted as long as we were quiet and didn't disturb anyone else.  I also remember participating in the Summer Reading program every year.  I read and read many books throughout the summer working to recieve a certificate....a piece of orange paper with a racoon on it signed by...the Librarian !! That certificate would proudly hang on my bedroom wall until it was replaced by the next certificate, the following summer.

As I grew up I continued to visit my library.  It was a social center.  You never knew what friends and classmates would be there.  It was also a place of study and reference work.  I spent many a school night there doing rese  arch for high school papers.  I attended college at a two year community college just 6 miles from where I lived and continued to write papers there before taking my drafts home to type on my dads Underwood typewriter.  I pursued my Bachelor's degree at another college where I commuted 25 miles each way and still visited my local branch to do research and write my papers. 

When I was 23 I moved to Lexington, Kentucky to attend Library School at the University of Kentucky.  I visited my library one last time to just walk through with gratitude for all that I had learned there and all of the books I had read. I was also grateful to that wonderful staff for letting the neighborhood kids stay and stay.....as long as we were quiet!  When I visited my home town I always visited the library.  Several years later when I drove up I noticed that the building was closed and I looked the library up in a phone book to discover that a new building had been built. I was curious and decid ed to check it out. I didn't recognize any of the staff.  The library was big and beautiful. I was happy to see that the children's section was much larger. As I was about to leave a big group of children, obviously friends, rode their bikes up and made their way to the front door. They were a boisterous bunch and as they loudly made their way past me I could overhear them telling each other to be quiet or the Librarian would ask them to leave. It's good to see some things never change.

~Lisa from the Goshen Branch