Floods

My career, my love, my delight. The flooding of the Cedar Rapids Public Library has affected all areas of my life. I can't remember a time without a library.

First the bookmobile that had been organized by a wonderful man named Tom Dolan in a little town called Arnold, MO. Books and more books. My childhood eyes saw riches in that small van, while my adult eye 'knows' that there might have been 150 books there. But I still see the world through those child's eyes.

The St. Louis County Library, the grade and high school library. College libraries all across the country. (I collect library visits like others collect coins or figurines.) The very, very new Fairfax County Library where I was welcomed as a fellow librarian, given the grand tour into the library depths, and handed their timeline for building a new library. (Thank you, my sister, for thinking of that visit!)

My children grew up with CR Library storytimes and summer reading programs. They are both avid readers and both worked (one is still working) at their college libraries to help them get through college. They are devastated by the idea that thousands of books are lost.

So am I. I am longing for the river to recede so that I can volunteer to start the clean up. I yearn to work along like-minded people to bring back the repository of information and learning that thousands of us need in our lives. I will drag my family and friends along to help (unless they are working at TCR for their clean up).

It's time to stock up on gloves and stuff so that I can leave my job at the Hiawatha Public Library and head downtown to salvage what can be salvaged.

Absurdly, and very sadly,
Pat