Love in the Library with Andy Carnegie

1909 view of the Carnegie Library, Pocatello, Idaho

The Carnegie Library In the early 1900s, steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie began a program to encourage education by financing community libraries across the United States. Carnegie was an immigrant from Scotland who had little education but who realized the importance of education, especially for the stream of immigrants who lacked sufficient education to compete in the American job market. His public program furnished libraries for thousands of communities across the country.

My first experience with a library was when I was learning to read and my dad and I climbed the many stairs of this imposing building on the corner of West Center and East Garfield. This Carnegie Library, built around 1907 from a 1906 grant, was one of ten in our state and cost $12,000 to build at that time. In the late 1950's it was vacated for a larger, more modern building on the east side of town. The newer building was only three blocks from St. Anthony School where I attended elementary and once a week I was one of the few bookish types who could walk there and back alone, loaded with books. Thus began my life long love affair with books and libraries. Returning to Idaho on occasion I've re-visited the new, even larger library that was built in 1994 on the original site, attached to the original Carnegie Library. It still smells the same to me.

[photos & facts from Idaho Museum of Natural History]

Many years later I am still a user and browser and haunter of libraries in every city I've lived in or visited. There's the massive urban library I'd visit in Chicago and the tiny Village Library in Jacobus, Pennsylvania where I read for story time. Once smitten, I'm always able to sniff out a library wherever I go. So I tip my hat to Andrew Carnegie!

Today's letter for ABC Wednesday is 'L' --for me it spells l-i-b-r-a-r-y.

Irish Blessings on 'ye

Even though it looks like I might have taken a trip to Ireland, this is the front of an old building in none other than Wisconsin! Visit Mary's colorful meme Ruby Tuesday for more surprises.

May you always walk in sunshine.

May you never want for more.

May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.

Give that lady a hand!

As soon as a person asks the question, 'How do I live my life the best way?' then all other questions are answered.

Leo Tolstoy

Last Friday I began my 59th year, mildly relieved it wasn't my 60th and yet, as I celebrated throughout the day, a peace invaded my day. It remains three days later. I think it was a result of laying my cards on the table and choosing to mine from these many years all I have to be grateful for, and for a Libra, that can't be easy. These are the cards I've been dealt.

One card is labeled my childhood, unfortunately full of abuse and a sense of impermanence. Another I've held in my hand is the card of a long standing relationship of love and respect with Dave for these many 38 years. Next card can trump any sadness I've accumulated because it has the faces of my two beautiful daughters. I can't imagine my life without the family I found in my adulthood. Privileged hours enjoying learning, travel, art, literature, music and nature that have enriched my life is a wild card--one I can use whenever I'm feeling a bit 'temporary.' A healthy future, as much as I can influence that, makes up for earlier losses as well. And there's the 'cupcake' card which means I can do something nice for myself every day and try not feel guilty any more.

Earlier in September I found this birthday card I thought I'd eventually send to a friend. Instead, I've kept it for me! A reminder and a token to get into my 60th year. Thanks for listening!

her name was Henrietta

Every autumn I gather different photos for my annual hommage to my mother's love of asters. . .a bittersweet project for sure.
These from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois would have made her smile.

Pick more flowers at Luiz Santilli's Today's Flowers meme -- a perfect way to start the week!

The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.

Gertrude Jekyll

October arrives and a squirrel's gotta eat

On the last day of September we woke up to a hard frost--scraping the windshield type. I took this photo after the fog lifted off a frosty field. Nearby I found the water in a small lake clear and still from the night. The sky was still murky but its reflection was peaceful and blue.

More sky views at Skyview Friday.

333444

Following Rune's example for Bench of the Week, I am posting a bench sighting photo I took this week. This rustic, most likely hand-made, bench sits on a quiet street in a beautiful old neighborhood in White Bear Lake.

Look closely at who was posing for the photo!

Happy Friday!

cheese and crackers

None of the facts were clear until Uncle Cal died. His obituary stated he was born in Wisconsin but later moved with his family to Idaho where his father, William Miller, had taken a job with Kraft Cheese. Esther and William had two boys, Willis and Calvin, when they packed up and moved west. My mother was born after the family had settled in a verdant valley named Rockland where they raised cows, as did the Millers and the Rosins they’d left behind. Watercress grew on the banks of the Snake River nearby. William had been a valued member of the team establishing the first dairy facility in southeastern Idaho for the Kraft Corporation in the 1930’s.
Growing up I heard the name Colby only as it referenced Aunts Emma, Anna and Hortense or cousin Minnie Mae. My mother’s jaw would tighten when she mentioned the Millers back in Wisconsin. William had disgraced them and ruthlessly altered the history of his wife and children by walking off the Rockland farm one day during the Depression. Decades later word trickled down that he had another family in California.

Even more decades have passed leaving only the famous orange cheese, made in Wisconsin since 1882, as a reminder of what might have been. I’ve kept an image of my grandfather wrapped in the cooler drawer of my heart. He’s in the field behind the plow pulled by his faithful mule when he stops to watch a flock of geese pass overhead. Then he drops the reins and follows them.

Visit Sunday Scribblings and read more stories prompted by 'cheese.'

Small birds flew

One of my favorite late summer occurrences is when the new sparrows have fledged and now travel in clusters of family and friends [am I anthropomorphising again?]. They are always eating on the ground or perched in trees in ten or twenty at a time. There is something so precious and communal about this ordinary behavior that gives me a certain feeling of security. That all's right with the world, even if it really isn't. Anyway, I caught these guys on a lovely bird bath recently. The photo is worth enlarging to see those down inside too.

More great creatures at Camera Critters.

Last night as I floated above the treetops
Clouds were forming to the north
Grace gazed at the river’s edge
Shaking out her skirt, small birds flew
And with their beaks wrote new chapters
From the ink the river spilled under the stars....more