Re: what are you reading?

Jim,

You may be right. I hadn't thought about it that way.  There was a lot more
stereotypical  role playing going on back then.

( That said, I also knew teachers on and off the job then, and there wasn't
quite such a dichotomy. Except for my second grade teacher, who shouldn't
have been allowed anywhere near young, inquisitive minds. No. That's not
strong enough. I think there's a special place in hell for people like that.
Even though I wasn't one of her victims, I still remember the mental torture
she applied to some of my classmates. )

Daryl





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "james singer" <jsinger@igc.org>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] 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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