Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Summer in the Library...

books in the library baby!


it was hot in the summer in Yountville...it rose to 90 early in the summer morning and if I didn't go swimming at the Veterans Home pool, I'd likely head down the street to the dark cool library at the Post Office building.

It was a cold shock to open the heavy door and walk in. Dark stacks of books, flat carpet and a small window......and all those words on paper.

This is where I discovered Robert Louis Stevenson, Jessamyn West and books about death. All of us kids read RLS and Miss West since they lived in the Napa Valley and were therefore, "our own". Whatever was on the "grown-ups" recommended shelf, was what I wanted to read.

I'd lay on the floor on my back, roll over on my tummy, or lean against a corner out of the way. Hours would pass. I traveled to worlds far away from my tiny farm town.

When I tired of that, or bored, or ready to check out and take a book to read,  it actually hurt a bit to step into the hot bright California sunshine after being entombed in the cave of the library. Then I'd find a shady oak to climb up and sit with the birds and bugs.

I just listed collections of trashy fun reads....these books were never in the library...these were the kind of books I found in my parents bedroom, though.

Classic trash like Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl....lots of sex! A bit of murder, some double crossing...perfect for reading in a hammock or late at night when it cools.....

Best movie with a Library theme.....
It's Party Girl of course! 
Books, food carts, love, parties, great clothes, vintage clothes, hard-hearted vintage clothes dealers, the Gays, and safe sex and sweet love!

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