My first library card

I can understand why Katie didn't write her own commentary--she's too old to remember when she got her first library card. I'm not as old as she, but I hardly remember what I felt when I got my library card. Did I feel joy? Probably not. My mom had been checking books out for me and my sister and I used to get free RIF books because we were migrants (the kind that pick fruits and vegetables, actually my parents picked fruits and vegetables). We always had books. Sure they were the cheap copyright expired classics and not the fun Judy Blume, Dahl, etc. books, but I always had something to read.

What do I remember? The city nickel and diming me for turning in my books late; Stephen King books that smelled like cigars and cigarettes; flipping through Sassy magazine, hoping my mom wouldn't catch me.

I also remember the library offering some pretty neat stuff like vinyl records that my sister and I copied onto tapes. We checked out VHS movies (the first sex scene I ever saw was from "Excalibur" and my sister and I were shocked that T&A was available for free at the library) and I remember a glass case full of cameras also available for patrons to check out. We never checked any out, but I always thought that was pretty cool.

Since moving here, I've only taken Dan'l to the library a couple of times. They moved to a new building and it's been hard for me to get used to it. The original library was downtown and always full of homeless men who smelled like pee and beer. Maybe that's what I miss the most about the city library--the musty smell of old books, cigars, pee and beer.

(Although this is my story, feel free to pass it off as your own to friends, family and readers or as an icebreaker at parties.)