Libraries are free!

Recently my daughter Betsy phoned me. She had an epiphany and realized that "Libraries are like shopping, only they're free!" While that is true with the modern public library, that has not always been the case. How did public libraries get started? Click on these links to find out:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpublibrary.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libraries

Happy shopping at the library!

Read Across America

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday. Using this date as a catalyst the National Education Association encourages schools to celebrate reading on that day through a program called Read Across America. This year our school participated in a district-wide event. One class from four schools were each broadcast live sequentially for about five minutes apiece doing a presentation based on a Dr. Seuss book of choice. I selected Mr. Ford's first grade class for our presenters. As the decision to do this program was made only one week prior to March 2nd, we had little time to pull together a show. My hat goes off though to those wonderful first grade students, who knew the importance of following directions and when to be quiet. We had a few fourth grade helpers also, past students of Mr. Ford. Everyone did a fantastic job! One fish, two fish, read fish, blue fish . . . I have visions now of construction paper fish being raised by little hands in sync to the story and of Mr. Ford lying on a red, yellow and blue sofa wearing a red and white stripped hat being covered by stuffed animals who came to call on Ned. . .

The Great Turkey Round-Up

Once upon a time my family use to joke about things such as Great Turkey Round-Ups while passing time on long trips. Turns out several organizations really have turkey round-ups in November to encourage donations to food pantries. Not exactly the type of round-up we had in mind though. We imagined wild turkeys being corralled and driven by cowboys to the turkey processing plants. Or should I say turkeyboys? We also joked about the beaver hotels on dry ground we would come across next to train tracks. In reality these were actually piles of railroad ties. Why do I write about these in this particular blog? I just happened upon a book in my library titled The great turtle drive. This is a delightful tale by Steve Sanfield who is a poet and storyteller. Told as a first person narrative, a gentleman explains how he earned and lost a million dollars by the time he was twenty-one. He did this by driving turtles from Texas to Kansas City cattle drive style. I'm thinking of adding this one to my very small storytelling collection. It hits home somehow. It will also get me thinking and smiling the next time I see turtle soup on a menu...