Terrapin Station

What says security to you?

Since Monday last I've been without a car.  After hitting a large pothole, my oil pan became disengaged from the car itself :  Uh oh!  Jack our Automotive Fixing Guy had it for the week, trying to cobble it back togther.  No dice, apparently.  So now it's gone to Another Auto Place (?) where they will "drop the motor" and put the thing back together for reals. 

So, no car.  We usually have an extra vehicle or so around, but at this point they are all motorcycles (3 of those) and one-ton flatbed trucks (generally in use by Ken's workers). 

My extremely brief walks to and from work were a delight...except for the Thursday afternoon DOWNPOUR which lasted exactly as long as the walk home...sigh.  But at least it was the walk HOME and not TO WORK.  I was able to shed my sopping kit in the laundry room and get some good sympathy and a beer from my spouse right away. 

I missed a meeting Monday night at church; missed Tuesday choir; missed a lunch with friends.  No going nowhere.  Ok, I can deal. 

Also, I didn't get to Jazzercise at all during the week.  Very annoying, just as I was getting into a really good groove, but there was all the walking.  So, all right.

But what DID bother me:

was not being able to go to the library or to the grocery store.  No running by to pick up milk or bread.  No heading over after work to get the book I'd requested and replenish my supply. 

It bothered me a lot.  I count on ready access to those two places to feel secure and nourished.  I'm not sure which one is more important to me, frankly. 

This morning I got into the one-ton flatbed with the generator, water tank, shovel holder etc. on the back and chugged to the library.  Then chugged to Kroger.  I had LOTS of coupons and saved $24; this the result of manic grocery list planning in the week...

You should have seen me, parking in those parking lots in the work truck.  And chugging down the road...goodness. 

But I feel much much better.  I have a large stack of new reading on the shelf; I have meals for the whole week planned. 

Tomorrow I have to drive the flatbed to church.  Chug chug chug down the highway.  Don't get me wrong; I'm grateful and realize how lucky I am to have an alternate means of transportation at all! 

And I've been to the library and the grocery.

Seen in LA: Library Love

 

Your library-loving lady here! 

Here's the tower of the 1926 LA Central Library.  Gorgeous and visible from my hotel.  Entirely dwarfed by the skyscrapers around it but beautiful. 

As we walked down 5th street to dinner one night, we passed the north entry, with carvings by one Lee Lawrie and an inscription on the facade (which, the Web tells me, is taken from Richard de Bury's aspostrophe to books in the Philobiblion):

Books alone are liberal and free; they give to all who ask; they emancipate all who serve them faithfully.

We did not see the West entry, which bears another grand inscription:

In the world of affairs we live in our own age; in books we live in all ages.

I adore that I can observe things like this and then go back and review them...get the quotes...via the Web.  Oh, and tell YOU about them!

Belle Sherman Kendall: A salute

I went for a visit Friday to the Kendall Branch Library of the Houston Public Library system.  It's the library I grew up going to, and I wrote about my memories of it here. 

I went in, sat down, and just looked around for a long time.  I wondered if the librarians would be concerned about my odd behavior, but I forget:  that is hardly odd behavior in a library.  I've WORKED in a library.  I know. 

Kendall Branch - It is SMALL!  It is one large room, with the children's reading room off to the side where the restrooms are.  It still smells just the same.  The children's area, where I participated in many a Summer Reading Club, is in the same place.  It has computers now, and books about computers and Japanese, and no card catalogs.  (Remember, I left this library behind when I went to college in 1983!) The stacks seem shorter (yes, I'm taller.)  I looked for the areas where I selected the books for my self-assigned summer reading projects - all of Vonnegut one year, all of Roald Dahl and Ray Bradbury another. 

The building clearly needs work, which is explained by the fact that it is on the short list for destruction...there is a new Kendall library currently under construction, farther to the west, in a city which has grown hugely since I left it.  The new library will be three stories, including a community center with a half-court basketball court. 

Here's the thing.  This library is named for Belle Sherman Kendall.   That came as a surprise to me; I don't remember the two Christian names as being associated with the library; we always called it "Kendall Branch."  Why did I never wonder who this Belle Sherman Kendall was, never ask?  I do recall the bronze plaques on the outside of the building, bearing all of her names, that say it was opened in 1968-9, when I was 3.  No wonder I remember it so well, and as as a state of the art place - that was when I got my first library card and the whole love affair began. 

Despite not remembering anything about her name, I very well recall the huge oil portrait of Belle Kendall that is hanging on the front wall of the library.  She is a slight, dark-haired lady in a black dress, leaning on something, in a pensive mien.  On the wall behind her is a portrait of a soldierly looking older man, clearly her father, Gen. Sidney Sherman.   He was a hero of the Texas Revolutionary War, after all, and credited with originating the battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!” at the Battle of San Jacinto.

There is a historical marker in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, where Belle is buried.  I found a picture of her gravestones on Flickr also; there are two.  One says:  "Belle S. Kendall / April 27, 1847 - March 9, 1919."  The other, just below it, says, "Belle S. Kendall / Daughter of General Sidney Sherman, who commanded the 2nd Regiment at the Battle of San Jacinto and turned the Mexican right flank."

Now, as a founder of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Belle clearly saw her father's accomplishments as worthy of high regard, and defined herself in regard to them. 

But let me share also the information on the portrait, which shows at least an equally important accomplishment:

"While serving as president of the Woman's Club in Houston in 1898 and 1899, Belle Sherman Kendall initiated and carried out the negotiations with Andrew Carnegie which resulted in his donation of $50,000 toward the establishment of a public library for the citizens of Houston. A founding member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Mrs. Kendall was the daughter of General Sidney Sherman, who commanded the left wing of the Texas Army at the Battle of San Jacinto."

WOW! 

A woman in that time, negotiating with Andrew Carnegie, for a sum that in today's currency, according to The Inflation Calculator, was the  1898 equivalent of 1,277,449.50. 

That is a BIG DEAL.  And a big deal that bore amazing, amazing fruit.  Back in 1898 Houston was a growing, upstart city of 44,000, with no idea of what it would become.  The Buffalo Bayou was turned into a deepwater port right at that time, in the much derided hope that Houston could "get in on the action" that was causing unprecedented growth to the east in Galveston.  The 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston, both physically and in human terms, meant that it could no longer be the primary port in the area, and the ports of Houston and New Orleans grew immensely in importance and power. 

Belle Kendall was responsible for starting a public library system that now boasts an enormous central library and 36 branches.  Do you suppose she could possibly imagine how many people it fosters in learning every day...and will continue to?  That includes this one little girl from Cherrybark Lane, who grew up to earn two degrees in English Literature and to work to share the world with college students.  Who had strong female role models in her life, but so many others all around her she knew nothing about. 

I hope that the new Belle Sherman Kendall Library and community center will hang her portrait in a prominent place and will make the information about her crucial contribution to the city of Houston and its public libraries common knowledge.  Especially to the kids.  Who need to know that they can grow up to make a difference. 

Things I think about at the library

• I get most of my books from the "new and popular" shelves.  About half are fiction and half are not. 

• When I was in college I worked at the university library's circulation desk.  This meant that I got to see a huge variety of books as they were checked in and I read widely from among them.

• What, from the spine, is it that intrigues me about a particular book, enough to make me take it out and look further?  Is it the title?  Jacket design?  I'm not sure, but I do know that I frequently pull out a book with great interest, only to realize that I've already read it, and usually pretty recently.

• (I read a lot, and very fast, so the above is quite likely.)

• All the books on the LARGE PRINT shelves look fascinating, but it drives me batty to read LARGE PRINT books.   It makes my eyes feel like they are being SCREAMED AT. 

• I have a visceral dislike of almost all "Christian fiction."  It's not that I'm such a sophisticated reader...but I just can't stand how sappy those books always turn out to be, and how poorly written.  If I see that the publisher is Zondervan or Revell or like that, back it goes.  Prove me wrong, I'd love it!

• I love to read long series of books about the same people.  I don't care for short stories. 

• Why do children not have to be quiet in the library anymore?  Or anyone else, for that matter?

• I wonder if any of these kids feel the same way about this library as I do, or as I did about my childhood library?  Probably not. 

I am going to Houston this weekend for Holley's graduation and while there I will visit the Kendall Branch library, my childhood library from ages 2-18.  My sister tells me this is a good time for a pilgrimage as it will be replaced by a bigger and better one soon.  Very sad. 

I remember when I was allowed to get my first library card because I had learned how to write my name!!!  The librarian gave me the card and I wrote:

MARY B...

My mother stopped me quickly, and said we would go home and practice writing my name smaller.  I was deeply offended!  The next day we went back, and I wrote my name like this:

Mary Beth Butler

HAHAAHAHA!  I had my library card!  The world was mine!

I also remember that the shot-mobile came to the library, and we got on the little van thing to eat a funny-looking sugar cube and get a MEAN BAD SHOT that hurt.  That was the smallpox one.  It apparently didn't take, because I don't have a scar.  So if I ever go to the past like in Outlander, my secret will be safe. 

Okay, now I'm just thinking about libraries.  Time to stop and think about dinner.