theme week 6

The Bangor Public Library was one of my favorite places to go as a child. My mother would drive my sister and me there and park across the street, and then we would get out of the car and enter through the downstairs level directly into the children’s section. Shelves upon shelves stacked with books. Fairy tales, fantasy, the American Girls section that was my favorite spot. None of the shelves, except the ones lining the back wall of the large room that made up the children’s section, were more than four feet tall, so small children had an easier time reaching the books they wanted. Next to the door sat the librarians desk, where she would help kids find books and check them out, occasionally signing them up for their own library card.

 Just around the corner of the desk was the card catalog, where you could look up the book you wanted, old small square wooden drawers full of cards, a mix of new and old, all smelling like that old papery book smell. Shelves created multiple corners all over the room, most with their own child sized arm chair to curl up in and read. A few tables and chairs for adult sized people sat about the room for the parents or reading sessions. And on top of one book case sat an old Mother Goose stuffed animal that never left the children’s section, following it to the temporary location they had to move to while the old building was fixed up, welcoming the children in to read.