Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for October 20, 2021

Busted!

My parents bought the World Book encyclopaedias. They had a yearly update volume. I swear, I read every one of those things cover to cover!

I remember many Saturdays doing that until closing. Sometimes I am glad I leaned that way but other times I wonder if I should not have been enjoying the outdoors more.

Same question I asked Sunday mornings as a kid when I was told what I had to do but my ignored answer was easier and always the same. When I reached the legal age and departed I asked it for the last time and gave myself the best and final answer.

I grew up in a country town.

My library didn’t have a fraction* of the resources available to students today.

*technically, of course, it did.

At the University of Iowa, there were certain floors that you did that and others where you could study and research. It wasn’t formal, just student culture that everyone seemed to follow.

Nope; we weren’t allowed to talk in the library. nice try, though.

Prettywell every family had a set of encyclopedias that served as a source of information and general browsing. My “public” library was 50 miles away on a dirt/gravel road, don’t believe I ever went there.

Touché

So what’s the point, you had to do it the hard way, she doesn’t.

My offspring tried to get out of writing a paper by telling me about it on the day the library was closed, with the paper due the following day, of course. So I took her to the local bookstore, let her grab books, get coffee, and I sat down with a fictional book in sight and let her do her work. “A” work as always, she was just bored in school, as I was, so I understood her problem. We should have been allowed to progress as our abilities warranted.

Actually my parents purchased a set of encyclopedias. They were limited on most subjects and the most boring thing to read.