The story of an owl who road a tractor to the ocean to make art... during a BLOG CARNIVAL!

Twice a month this owl joins together with creative, artistic, and imaginative bloggers from many near and far away lands and we go to a special place called the "Blog Carnival".  Along with us, we take our readers... so gather around, hold on tight, grab a flashlight ... this might be a dusty trip! 

Many moons ago (owls travel by moonlight...) the first public library was created, or built as some would probably say.  How many moons ago?  A lot.  For example, the first public library in the United States was built in 1833 in New Hampshire.  Libraries, and this feeling of history, are where our blog carnival gets its juices from this trip thanks to Deb, of Storybeader! 

For this carnival we were given the following two choices to write about:  1) what fond memories do you have of your public library and reading?  or 2) Peterborough is the town where the first public library opened.  What's your town known for?  Show us around!  I've chosen to go with option #1. 

As I said, this is going to get dusty!!!  My library growing up was, just that!  It wasn't that the librarians didn't take good care of it, they did!  I just imagine that being in the high school of a town that was a rural farming community, and where "Drive your Tractor to School Day" was still a regular event, the athletes would run laps around the building (circulating all the tractor and boot dust back up into the air), and... well you get the idea.

We (I grew up with siblings, and my mom) spent a lot of time at the library.  My mom loved to read and she instilled that same passion in us from the time we were old enough to look at a book... let alone read one!  March Reading Month was celebrated with the same rigor as any other federal holiday in our family!  (And... now that I know the first public library was opened in April, I'm perplexed as to how it is held in March... but that's a tangent in this trip...)  Our family was at the library at least once a week, returning books and checking out new ones.  I can remember the feel of the card catalog, the carpeting (which was brown and orange), and the order in which the library was organized. 

It was in that library that I first decided what I wanted to be when I grew up!  An Artist!... A scientist!... A COOK!... A Marine Biologist!  Haha... even at a young age I was open minded, and creative enough not to be stuck to one idea for too long.  I spent the most time reading about marine biology though, as I decided upon it at a slightly older age.  I learned what marine biologists did, I learned what sorts of schooling they needed, and the part I enjoyed the most, was learning about marine wildlife and "oceanography".  I still remember when I learned the word "oceanography".  In the latter portion of elementary and younger middle school my teachers probably wished I would learn a new word, and find a new interest... or that the librarian would show me a different section of our library. 


The other really cool thing about our library was that the mom of one of my very good friends worked at the library so I always got to visit with her when I visited the library.  I distinctly remember that she, and all of the other librarians always remembered my, and every other child's name.  When we walked through those doors it was if we were in a magical, quiet place that the world stopped and another world began. 

Thanks to my mom, and the library, I still love reading!  I love reading anything and everything that I can get my hands on.  I have not been back to that library in a very long time, but perhaps the next time I am home I will walk in, just to see what it is like, all these many years later.  ... ... ... Notice I'm still an artist :-)?  (I still love the ocean too!)