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May 20 – A GIRL, A BICYCLE, A LIBRARIAN, AND A MAGICAL SPELL

May 20, 2019 by Kali 10 Comments

by Sara Etgen-Baker

I often mounted my bicycle and sped down the street, my hair whipping back as I let my feet off the pedals and flew down the hill at a speed rivaling a cheetah. When I reached the point where the street curved, I slammed on the brakes hoping the unevenly worn brake pads would bring me to a stop just as I neared the library’s front entrance.

I dismounted and pushed open the library’s heavy door, walked across the tiled chessboard floor, and tossed a penny in the fountain before climbing the stairs to the main hall where I encountered Miss Talbot, the head librarian.

Miss Talbot was a decipherer of secret codes, master of index cards, maven of the Dewey Decimal System, and sorceress all wrapped into one tiny human being. I truly believed she was a mind reader or, at the very least, part magician the way she could find whatever I was looking for; many times before I asked.

“You’re allowed to check out ten books at a time,” she always said rather matter-of-factly.

“I’ll take ten books home with me,” I replied in an elated voice, signing the borrower’s card inside each one.

“Return these by the due date.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said reassuringly.

I can still feel their weight in my arms as I lugged them downstairs and heaved them into my bike’s saddlebags. The books I checked out allowed me to magically travel through time and contact the dead; Anne Frank, Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum, and so many more.

On chilly winter nights, I accompanied Nancy Drew as she gathered clues and unraveled mysteries. On soft, promising green spring days Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost taught me about the worthy art of poetry, giving me a sense of what is beautiful about the world. I also cherished those warm, lazy summer afternoons spent in the library escaping August’s sultry heat and breathing in the stale, sun-warmed dust of a thousand stories. The library was the perfect place to go whenever I felt unhappy, bewildered, or undecided. Inside books, I found encouragement, comfort, answers, and guidance.

A great deal of who I became is based upon my visits to the quiet, unassuming library; lit up during winter darkness and open in the slashing rain allowing a girl like me to experience actual magic. Each time I ventured inside and opened the cover of a book I wondered what I might find inside. Where would I go? Whom would I meet?

The stories I read were powerful, for they either sent me back in time or forward into the future and frequently transported me to other lands where I met ogres and talking rabbits. Some of my best friends I found between the covers of the books I checked out at the library using my simple library card. Even now when I enter a library and open a book, I fall under an enchanting spell, and I never want the spell to be broken.

A teacher’s unexpected whisper, “You’ve got writing talent,” ignited Sara’s writing desire. Sara ignored that whisper and pursued a different career but eventually, she rediscovered her inner writer and began writing. Her manuscripts have been published in anthologies and magazines including Chicken Soup for the Soul, Guideposts, Times They Were A Changing, and Wisdom Has a Voice.

Kalí Rourke is a full-time philanthropist and volunteer in the Austin, Texas area and has lent her writing, public speaking, and social media skills to many local nonprofits, including Story Circle Network. She is a wife, mom, "Gigi" to her awesome grandkids, a professional singer, and an advocate for mentoring in all of its forms. 

Filed Under: Sara Etgen-Baker, True Words from Real Women Tagged With: books, libraries, memoir, Reflection, Women's Stories

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. arielazucker says

    May 20, 2019 at 7:07 am

    Lovely Sara,
    I liked the combination of the daredevil and the polite devoted reader. Your story brought back the good days when the library was the place to go and an understanding Liberian could make a change in a child’s life.

    Reply
    • sara etgen-baker says

      May 20, 2019 at 3:01 pm

      thanks, Ariel, for reading the piece, for commenting, and recognizing the personality I was hoping to convey 🙂

      Reply
  2. Patricia Roop Hollinger says

    May 20, 2019 at 9:09 am

    Your piece triggered so many memories for me when my mother would take me to the local library for yet another book. A Nancy Drew book to read at bedtime or Little Women during the day. I still have to have at least one or two books to read on my shelf at all times.

    Reply
    • sara etgen-baker says

      May 20, 2019 at 3:02 pm

      I’m grateful the piece ignited some memories for you. I read Little Women over, and over, and over again. I think I wore out the book binding 🙂

      Reply
  3. Mary Jo Doig says

    May 20, 2019 at 12:22 pm

    Sara, this is so charming and filled with detail that awakens my own memories of going to the library as a young girl. The wind blowing my hair on a bicycle, the wonderful feelings each time I entered, and the weight of those books in my arms as I carried them outside. For those of us who love books, this is an especially poignant. How fortunate we are that you re-ignited that whisper from so many years ago! Kudos!

    Reply
  4. sara etgen-baker says

    May 20, 2019 at 3:04 pm

    I appreciate your kind words, Mary Jo, and for recognizing the detail I included that ignited your memories. Seems as if we writer types were lovers of words from the get-go. 🙂

    Reply
    • Mary Jo Doig says

      May 21, 2019 at 10:47 am

      Indeed! ‘Tis true for me… Happy day, Sara!

      Reply
      • sara etgen-baker says

        May 21, 2019 at 5:02 pm

        you too, Mary Jo!

        Reply
  5. Letty Watt says

    May 24, 2019 at 9:43 am

    Thank you for sharing this story because we obviously share the same memories of libraries. Even after spending part of my career as an elementary Librarian I still find books that carry me away, and enjoy the carefree feeling I find in libraries today.

    Reply
    • sara etgen-baker says

      May 24, 2019 at 2:18 pm

      Letty–thanks for reading the piece and commenting. Glad you still love the way a library enchants you. You nailed it–libraries do seem to create that carefree feeling. 🙂

      Reply

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