Library Girls

The Urbandale Public Library was a neighbor to Urbandale High School years ago. I'd often stop by after work to grab a book, a CD, and/or a movie. Back then they had padded bags you could borrow to carry the materials you checked out.

I remember carrying one of these bags into a co-worker's classroom on a Friday afternoon. He was talking to a young woman that I didn't recognize about working at the middle school. I was single at the time, so when she left a minute later, I asked him who she was.

"I don't think it matters to you," he replied.

"Why?"

"You and your nerd library book bag wouldn't stand a chance."

I was stunned, "What are you talking about?"

He stooped over, mimicked a little boy holding imaginary book bag straps with his hands and knees together, and said, "I'm going to the library so I can get some bookths!"

"Are you saying that women won't go out with guys who go to the library?"

"Yes. That's exactly what I am saying."

We argued about merits of reading for a minute more, and then my book bag and I left.

I later discovered how much that guy hated to read anything longer than a paragraph. In retrospect, his comments said a lot more about him than they did about me.

Also, he was wrong. Girls like the library. I know this is true because Daphne and I went to a library during one of our first days together as a couple.

Later, we had a girl of our own who loves to go to the library.

I have these stickers left over from the "Geek the Library" awareness campaign. They sit on the windowsill in my classroom.

I used to have this poster hanging in my classroom, too.

This campaign confuses Charlotte. "How can anyone make fun of the library? There isn't anything geek about it."

I have to agree. Where would the Monsons go on rainy, summer mornings? Where would we walk to on sunny, fall afternoons? When the winter snow is blowing outside our window, where do we get a movie to cozy up with? Where's the best place to fly a spring kite in Johnston, Iowa?

Yes, there are other places that we go, but none fit our family as well as the library.

Oh yeah, I just remembered this. That same teacher also told me that when I turned 29, I was too old to ever find a wife and have a family. He was quite a wealth of misinformation.

Maybe he should have read more often.