Re: what are you reading?

I think it was a matter social expectations more than anything else. Social mores defined librarians as draconian spinsters so that's how they behaved. In my pre-pubescent youth, I lived next door to the local librarian, a widow with a daughter in [guess] library school at UCLA.

We lived about half a block from the territory she ruled. In the library, she was a tyrant, threatening to excoriate me if I so much as spoke a word [even in an otherwise empty room], but at home, where I often weeded her garden, she was one of the nicest women I ever knew.

She also turned me on to the Doctor Doolittle series, which was my first serious reading experience.


On Thursday, December 4, 2003, at 05:02 PM, Daryl wrote:

Pam,

I think that back in the 50's being a librarian *was a life. The only life a
spinster had other than as teachers and nurses. And the teachers and nurses
were by nature sociable, while librarians were definitely not interested (or
maybe afraid of) social interaction.

I only remember one librarian in that era who was genuinely interested in
helping people enjoy books. The rest of them seemed to consider themselves
guardians of the sacred books. Woe be unto any kid that might dog-ear a
page, or get fingerprints on one, or (gasp) write in one. Not that we would
have dared.

Daryl
Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10

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