Library

I got my job at Bookland in Huntsville when I was a senior in high school. Mrs. Slater hired me because I hung out there all the time with her daughter Holly, whom I dated off and on. One day when registration was in chaotic progress and we were underfoot as usual, she said, "As long as you two are here, get to work." So she set us up in her office going over the cash register slips to sort out the various purchases. In those pre-computer days, all the register did was print a letter beside the purchase indicating if it was for a trade book, a textbook, a Bible (tax exempt) or something else. So we went through yards of cash register tape adding up all the A's and B's and so on. For the glorious sum of $1 an hour!

That turned into a weekend job, then a full time job that summer before I went off to Michigan State in the fall. MSU started later than Sam Houston, so I was able to stay and work the chaos of registration in the new store that I had helped move into. I loved that job, and it was waiting for me when I came home for Christmas and spring breaks and for the summer.

Today I started as a volunteer at the Kilbourn Public Library in the Dells. I hang out there so much I thought I should get to work. I was surprised Norma Slater hadn't wandered by and put me to doing something already. I worked for a couple of hours this afternoon, processing books that were to go out on interlibrary loan (a surprising number), checking the shelves for books that had been missing from last November's inventory (found only one) and cutting up scrap paper for ... well, scrap paper.

I enjoyed it and plan to do a couple of hours every Friday afternoon until gainfully employed doing something else.

On another note, this morning when I went to dump my cold coffee into the sink, what to my wondering eyes should appear but the pileated woodpecker hanging on the bird feeder and pecking away at one of the suet boxes. I called Tom who was able to get a photograph. The pileated has been hanging around a lot lately, and I think now that he knows how to make the birdfeeder work, he will be around even more.