Hidden Park Comments

TipsyHausfrau

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 13:45:42 +0000

This was a beautiful trip back to childhood. Thank you! We also put on elaborate shows with the neighbor kids. Always a big bedsheets as backdrop, thrown-together costumes... I want to see a performance of Aunt Zelda's Millions. :)

jelo

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 17:08:23 +0000

Nice. This is how I remember childhood as well. During Evel Knievel's height of fame, a bunch of the kids in our cut-de-sac pilfered a bunch of construction materials--cinderblocks, plywood, and 2x4s, and build a ramp in the middle of the street to see who could get the most air. Some amazing crashes happened, blood and tears were shed, and no one got in trouble for any of it.

SunnyZ

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 13:19:04 +0000

I love this. This is exactly how it was for me growing up in the 70s. I would leave early in the morning and not come home till nighfall. My husband grew up in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood and lived there all his life. He ran wild with a pack of boys. He couldn't understand why our son wasn't doing the same and I had to point out how different things are now. NOBODY lets their kids run wild anymore especially in a remote rural area. It's sad but that's just how it is. We really have lost something special. Anyways, this is a lovely essay HB. Thank you!

Whoa Hop

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:46:41 +0000

This sounds so awesome.

Whoa Hop

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:46:02 +0000

I can't even imagine what the ladies on the block would have done with digital access to the library collection. It might have spurred some otherwise technically shy women to learn some skills they would think can only be mastered by men or their very smart children.

Delta Sierra

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:44:57 +0000

Small northern town, looong summer evenings. Gaggle of 13-14 year old girls, nightly ritual of walking each other home. An excuse to walk up and down all the (not that many) streets, just to be out after dark, to be somewhere other than at home. No thought, us or parents, of our not being safe. Everyone in town knew everyone else by sight. Nothing ever happened.

Delta Sierra

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:41:04 +0000

One of our librarians here is in a big sweat to have a bookmobile, she itches for one, to serve the outlying farms and smaller-even-than-us communities. Don't see it happening because $$$. Also the Friends pay for a digital service called Hoopla were you can remotely access music, books audiobooks and movies. Free to lby patrons.

Whoa Hop

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:07:28 +0000

We had a bookmobile that came around once a week. That and the school library were my primary sources of books books books. I loved the mixed up aromas of diesel and paper when the bookmobile arrived at the apartment complex, and my mom and all her friends would line up and go in one door with the books they were handing in and out the other door with a new set of books to read. And this is where I learned that you pair up with someone so that you can trade books and get to read more than the allotted amount per week. This was a neighborhood of voracious readers. I remember when the bookmobile stopped running, it felt like the city was trying to shut us out. But the ladies on the block responded by carpooling or busing in groups to the library to carry home piles of books.

The Grand Inquisitor

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 03:06:49 +0000

Thanks for this, it was a really nice read. <3

bassethoundfinn

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 23:50:14 +0000

My grandma was a librarian at the National Library of Lithuania. If I didn't feel like going to the kindergarten I went to work with her. I was allowed to roam free as long as I wasn't making any noise. My grandma was the best! Both, you and HB brought so many good memories. Thank you!

TurdHurtler

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:23:26 +0000

This reminds me of Junior High in Florida. A friend of mine and I hatched the brilliant plan that we would hike into the local swamp, cut down some trees and build a raft and sail out of the swamp Huck Finn style. Needless to say, the raft idea didn’t work out but I have fond memories of getting soaking wet and encountering snakes, turtles, and a gator. Good times and adventure!

DontMakeMe

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 15:55:05 +0000

Thanks so much for this, hb. This sounds a lot like my childhood, and even more so my brother and sister's childhood (they had a fair amount more kids in their "cohort"). We were out all day. From 5-6 each many homes' designated criers would pop out the front door to yell for their kid(s) to come eat dinner. And by 7:00 or so we'd all be back out there for the night games like "spotlight." Back then snow used to fall in this section of the country during winter, too. *gasp* I know.

enesbit15

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 15:35:24 +0000

Thank you for sharing! What fantastic memories.

atty63

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 14:47:04 +0000

My memories our library include notices of collection agencies being called in regarding a bunch of never returned books. My family was not a pillar of society. I also spent a lot of time hanging out in the library researching papers for high school. There was one very kind young librarian and my crush, later boyfriend, worked there.

atty63

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 14:28:40 +0000

Times have changed so much. I remember running wild and free. Thanks so much for this. Our kids are being raised in such a different reality. In some ways I think paying closer attention to my son than my folks did to me is better. In so many ways the loss of freedom and the culture of fear is such a sad environment in which to raise our kids.

Delta Sierra

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 14:21:04 +0000

People: do you remember your childhood libraries? Mine was pretty humble, in a very small (pop 1200) town in northern Ontario. Smooth Rock Falls, up near Kapuskasing. Postal code is BRR !!!. But we had a library. At first it was a room over the fire station, when I was really small. I remember tables but no shelves, but there must have been some. Then it moved to a larger room close to the rink, with real shelves. The mums of the town took turns on the check-out desk. Still not that many books, so that's where I learned the beauty of re-reading, which I still do today. The library these days. <img src="http://www2.cscdgr.education/media/zoo/images/ph_ecgv_0ffb5e979ef1812fc33c235b85efd0b1.jpg"/>

zanzi

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:48:36 +0000

Thanks for this houseboat. It takes me back to similar good times.

Colleen_B

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:03:32 +0000

Lovely

Blix!

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 12:47:05 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Thanks for posting. :)

shorter10

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 12:38:42 +0000

My childhood was magic as well! Lovely stories.