My First Library

"I have fond memories of being taken to my local library by my oldest sister. The Berlin Public Library is a beautiful Carnegie Library that is right on the banks of the Androscoggin River. My sister would drop me off in the Children's Room, which was on the basement- level, and head upstairs to the adult section. The Children's Librarian was very stern, and I was always too afraid to be anything but perfectly behaved. I was not allowed to go upstairs alone, so I would have to wait for my sister to come and get me. I don't know what they thought I would do if left to go upstairs on my own-run through the stacks hollering and yanking books off the shelves with abandon? Who knows, but I didn't let that dampen my enjoyment of the books. I was visiting my parents about 20 years after my last visit to my public library. I went to the grocery store and there was the Children's Librarian of my youth (long since retired). She said, "I remember you-you always had overdue fines!" I think of this comment often when I happen upon kids that I have known from the Dover Public Library who are now adults. I prefer to think fondly of how they were regular users of their wonderful public library and that makes me happy-fines or no fines!" #MyFirstLibrary #ThrowbackThursday