School’s out for SUMMER!
Oh, my goodness, y’all. I don’t have any Junior Halls in school anymore, and Lord knows, it’s been forever since I was in school, but I still get a thrill when school’s out for summer.
When I was kid, summer was vacation and the beach and swimming and hot dogs. But mostly, summer was reading whatever I wanted to read.
All school year long, I had homework and sports and homework and chores and homework and book reports. I hated writing book reports. Mostly because we’d have to choose a book from this list of biographies, or a book from this list of historical fiction, or a book from this list of states or…well, you get the picture. It’s a wonder that school didn’t ruin reading for me.
Summer saved me. Or more accurately, the public library saved me. My mom would drive me to the big public library on Bull Street in Savannah and let me choose whatever books my little heart desired.
Thus began my love affair with the public library. Sad to say, I wasn’t true to my first love on Bull Street. As the years passed, I’ve fallen for many a public library, in cities all over Georgia. And now that I’m a writer, I’m seeing my true love in a whole new light. I mean, I thought I knew all my present library’s secrets, but I was wrong. And if you want to know why, check out “The Best-Kept Writer’s Secret” over at the Muffin. It’s one summer love I don’t mind sharing!
Cathy C. Hall Writes 
My love for libraries began at the Duvall Branch Library in North St. Louis. During summers the library sponsored a Read Away Vacation Club. Once a week my siblings and I walked to the library and checked out our six books limit, then exchanged books among one another so we could read even more! We got a gold star next to our name for each book read.
The library is no longer open, but the structure still sits on a dead-end street, near I-70. Every time I drive past the old library on my way downtown, I fondly remember the summer afternoons and Saturday mornings I spent there.
Dang, that made me tear up a little, thinking of that old, once-loved library! But then I smiled, too, thinking of what fun y’all hand, exchanging books! Oh, I do so love the library! Thanks for sharing that tale, Donna!
A new library has been built on our area, across from an animal farm. Quite the view.
Love that, Linda! Bet the kids (old and young) do, too!
1 week til my school is out! Great secret! I love your ideas!
I loved Summer Reading too, Cathy! My boys & I would participate in the Summer Reading Club every year when they were little. Miss those days!
HAPPY SUMMER!
Ah, yes, summer reading. My sister gave me Victoria Holt’s classic Gothic romance “The Mistress of Mellyn” my 10th summer. I’m sure I was driving my poor sissy nuts so she gave me something to get me out of her hair for a while. It worked. I was hooked. And I stayed out of her hair. The library became my friend that year. 🙂