The library

Jan 22, 2019

When I was in first grade Milwaukee opened the Atkinson library. It was half mile from my school and we would have field trips, walking from 25th and Capitol to 19th and. Atkinson. After my quick trip to library school at the age of 4, this was heaven.
My favorite story is one of our first trips there. My mom was chaperoning the trip and when we arrived we gathered in a room to hear from the librarian before we could get a book. As usual, I was fooling around so when I got to the room, all the front chairs were filled. I wanted a front chair, and based on my actions, I felt I deserved one. I simply walked to the front, tapped a little girl from my class.on the shoulder and signaled to her that she should get up and give me her seat..
My mother was mortified by my actions, and more shocked when the little girl got up and moved to a back row.
I must have had a secret, bossiness that my mom never saw. At home I was Mary’s little sister and not a demanding child. She saw, at the library, that I was not all I appeared to be.
I probably got first choice on books too...but my mom never told that part of the story. Just that I went to the library, and I OWNED IT. Still makes me laugh today to think of my mom telling that story over and over when people told her I was a sweet, kind child. They never would have known without the library story.