The Summer of 1954 at the Northside Public Library
In the summer of 1954, my life changed forever due to the Northside library. I grew up in Northside where I attended Chase and later Kirby Road elementary schools. I must have set some sort of record for bad behavior; I was a small, hyperactive child with a tendency to disrupt classes. My central tenet was to do the exact opposite of what anyone in authority told me to do. Accordingly, I spent a great deal of time outside the principal’s office awaiting punishment.
My life continued in this troubling pattern until the end of the fifth grade. At that time the teacher distributed a list of 75 books for summer reading. The teacher told us that reading two or three books would be adequate, that no one could read 75 books in a single summer. She spoke magical words; I took them as a direct challenge and made up my mind to read all the books on the list.
The Monday after school ended saw me sitting on the front steps of the Northside public library. I began what became a ritual for me: I selected five books from the list, went to one of the large oak tables, sat down and started reading. I would read one book until I got tired or bored and then switched to another book. At lunch I walked home. Then I went back to the library and started reading again. Although not air-conditioned, the library was cool due to its thick masonry walls. It was also silent and there was a sense of purpose about the place. At night I brought books home. Day after day, week after week, I kept this pattern up. If I did not know a word I looked it up in the huge unabridged dictionary.
Something happened to me after I had done this for a few weeks; I began to enjoy my effort. Somehow I was entering new worlds, new lands of strange customs, new adventures full of danger. I became aware of a larger world outside of Northside. Significantly, the two librarians started to like me. I was their best customer; I came every day and I read with a level of intensity normally associated with fighting. They smiled when they saw me and they got to know my name. The librarians were impressed with my sense of mission.
Summer ended and hated school began, but not before I had 55 books notched on my belt. A battery of achievement tests indicated that my reading level was now at the middle of the 11th grade. That began a life-long love of learning that has continued to this very day.
