The County Library

      Cyndi once asked, “Why did they let elementary-age boys check out books about homemade rocket fuel?”

      “I don’t know,” I said. “But I think a kid could get by with a lot in 1965 in Kermit if they didn’t look like a California hippie.”

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      Susan Orleans, in The Library Book, wrote, “The library might have been the first place I was ever given autonomy.” That was true for me as well. My mom allowed me to walk by myself to the Winkler County Library where I browsed and checked out books long before I had a way to accumulate any money to buy things. Like Ms. Orleans, picking out books to read might have been my first autonomous decisions.

      Libraries go way back in my timeline. About ten years ago my mom gave me a blue three-ring binder that contained, along with High School letters and certificates and photos, copies of my summer reading list when I was in early elementary school. The library had a reading program to encourage youngsters to read ten books during the summer. I don’t have any memories of my mom taking me to the library and helping me choose books, but the reading lists show I was too young to go on my own.

      My earliest memory of going to the library by myself are from the summer when my mom worked as secretary for Grace Temple Baptist Church in Kermit. I was probably in fourth or fifth grade.

      The church and the county library were a bit less than a mile apart, a straight shot walking east, about a 12-minute walk. I don’t know if they’re in the same location as they were in the mid-sixties, but the odds are neither has moved. For once, the route on Google maps, along West Bryan Street, matches the pictures in my memory.

      Was it considered safe and good parenting to let a fourth grader walk a mile by themselves, in those days? I don’t know. But my mom always took me to the church with her while she put out the weekly bulletin since there was no such thing as childcare back then. Maybe she got tired of me pestering her because I was bored and simply sent me down the street to get rid of me. She was never one to complain or gripe, but she was quick to dream up a project to keep me busy.

      A patient librarian taught me to find the age-appropriate books and how to work a card catalogue. I was so excited when I found a complete set of Boy Scout merit badge books – small, about 4” x 5”, brown hardbound books. I checked them all out, one at a time. I was never in Scouts; I don’t know why. But I found the books, read them all, and tried to do what I could.

      It was in the library where I first read about rockets and learned I could build my own.

      Friends of mine owned Estes model rocket kits and I would go with them when they launched and recovered their rockets. For some reason I never had a kit of my own. I don’t think it was because they cost too much; I have no memory of asking my parents to buy one. But once I found books in the library, I wanted to build my own.

      From the Winkler County Library, I learned how to make my own potent rocket fuel using a 50/50 mix of potassium nitrate and sugar – both available over-the-counter to a young boy. I launched countless rockets using that fuel. Well, the word launch is a stretch, because none of my rockets flew. I wasn’t as good designing a functional rocket as I was making engines and fuel. So, I built a test wire in the backyard and raced my engines across the ground whistling and smoking. It was incredible. And all thanks to the county library

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      Going to the library was one of the things I missed most during the long Covid shutdown. It was painful. I needed a place to sit and spread out, write, edit, and read. I wanted to check the new-book shelf and see what I might be missing. I even missed sitting in the middle of the noisy room with families crisscrossing around my table. (I also longed for the old study carrels in the hidden corners known only to long timers, even though modern libraries no longer have them - they are all designed by people who think everyone wants to sit in the middle of the room … but that’s more of a rant than a missing out.)

      There’s good news! Lately we’ve been able to reenter the libraries again, and it’s been like coming home. It reminds me of my mom sending me down the street with an armload of books.

“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32

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