One of my friends was telling me all the places her kids beg to go....the water slide, Chuckie Cheese restaurant, Scheel's (a grand, new sporting goods store in Billings). And those are all really fun places that I'm sure my kids WOULD like to go to if they thought it was possible. (My kids have never seen the inside of a Chuckie Cheese restaurant. For that matter, they've never even seen the outside of one! It's one of my only good parenting decisions.)
My kids have had the "fun bar" set quite a bit lower.
THEY beg to go to the Miles City Library.
Do you remember the song from the television show "Cheers", with the beginning line of the chorus says "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came"? The library is that for us.
They greet us like friends, not patrons, calling us by our first names.
And they always have special books for the kids behind the counter that they've been saving...books about LEGOs, unicorns, Abe Lincoln, fairies. We get a call nearly every week informing us of these little treasures. If they see something the kids might be interested in, they order it. The childrens' librarian bought three new (and quite expensive) LEGO pattern books this summer, in part because my son used his big eyes and tender manner to persuade her the library was sadly lacking in that type of thing. (I'm going to see if he can get a couple Caribbean cookbooks for me that way.)
The library ladies also have a couple tables of discarded books that everyone can rummage through and take as many as they can fit in a bag for $1. They kind of let me fudge, sometimes, because the bag is usually too small for all the treasures I find. Last trip, I found 5 Lemony Snicket books (a series Maggie is reading) and they said, "Oh GOOD! You got them! We like to know that they're going to a good home."...as though they saw us coming and set them out just special. Our family keeps those discard bargain tables pretty pared down in the winter for them. It's the least we can do for our friends, really.
We discuss the weather, events in town, soup recipes, new novels, and such things as I check out. Oh, and I haven't used a library card in years; they have my number pulled up before I get there! (This easy familiarity MAY come because of all the overdue notices they've sent me. The library ladies really hate to take money for overdue books, so they renew and dismiss most of the fines. There for a while, though, I made enough "donations" to sponsor a brick in the new kids section, I'm sure.)
People seem to think librarians are quiet, rather shy, very bookish (duh!) sorts of creatures. My work study job in college was in the library, and I can tell you that some of the most interesting characters I've met in life are librarians. Very few of them were shy, and after hours, they weren't quiet either. Library ladies (and gentlemen) are not nearly as prim as their occupational reputation suggests...
I wanted to get a picture of them for this post, but forgot to do so last time we were there. Perhaps it would be better if you just stopped in and got to know them yourselves, anyway. You can tell them I sent you, and that you know about the secret stash of books behind the counter....
