Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 4, April 2004

Copyright 2004 Jane Lotter. Do not use without written permission.

JANE EXPLAINS:

Library card

By JANE LOTTER

So on March 6, my children and I went to the grand reopening celebration at the Green Lake Library.

Were you there, too? I think you must have been because as far as I could tell every human being in North Seattle was there.

By the time we arrived, the place was so crowded we could hardly squeeze in the front door.

The library had been closed for over a year for renovation and now people were lined up at the circulation desk, their arms FILLED with books. It looked like they'd been on some sort of literary starvation diet and suddenly they'd gone off the diet and were grabbing all the books they could get It looked like not only were they going to read those books, they were seriously thinking of eating them. It looked like the library was giving away free books.

Oh, well, I guess they were, weren't they? You do get free books at the library, although you have to give them back eventually.

The festivities started at noon, but my son had a basketball game earlier in the day, so we didn't get to the library until around 1:30 p.m. The library parking lot, which usually accommodates, I believe, one (or is it two?) vehicles, was closed during this special event. However, a miracle occurred and we found a parking spot just one block away.

(Later, inside the library, I ran into several people I know and one lady, commenting on the lack of parking at the Green Lake Library, said to me, "I don't like the new temporary library at Northgate, but at least it has plenty of parking."

Which, I don't know, reminded me somehow of that old joke about the two elderly gentlemen at a retirement home. One says, "The food here is terrible." And the other one says, "That's right and the portions are so small.")

But, I digress.

So we parked the car and tumbled out. (I actually had four kids with me: my own two, Tessa and Riley, plus two of their friends, Megan and Loren.)

Because we came late, we had missed the opening remarks by Mayor Greg Nickels and the usual suspects. But we did get there in time for the free food. If you have to miss either the opening remarks or the free food in life, I recommend missing the opening remarks. Because wherever you go, and whatever you do, there will always be opening remarks but the free food inevitably runs out.

I had a butterscotch cookie and a cup of hot coffee. The kids had cookies and apple juice. Isn't that against the rules or something? I mean, since when are you allowed to nosh in the library?! It was great.

Soon we'd finished the cookies and beverages and were gaily skipping through rows of books (philosophy, theology, pet care). Then we broke into groups. The two young boys went to the children's section. The teenage girls began browsing the online library catalog. I went back for more coffee.

We were having so much fun, I called my friend Wendi on my cell phone to ask if her son, Loren, who was on a tight schedule, could stay with us a little longer. As we were talking, a thought suddenly came into my head (it happens).

"Wendi," I said, "I just realized something! I'm making history! I think I'm the very first person to use a cell phone in the renovated Green Lake Library!"

"Well," she replied knowingly, "you can bet you won't be the last."

Anyway, she said Loren could stay, which was good because by now the boys had discovered the comic books. Oh, yes. An entire shelf of Captain America, Spider-Man, and the rest.

So what does the renovated Green Lake Library look like? Happily, it's much the same as it was before, only spiffier. There's a new carpet (we tried not to drop cookie crumbs on it). There's a streamlined circulation desk. There are fancy new computer terminals. Curious George, the giant stuffed monkey in the children's section, is back. He looks newly clean, and he's been lashed to one of the columns, like Ulysses resisting the call of the Sirens.

By now, the kids wanted to take home their treasures. The boys had comic books, videos, and, because I insisted, one real book each. The girls carried an eclectic mix of Agatha Christie, Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King (because, you know, Johnny Depp's in that new Stephen King movie).

I had a biography of Charlie Chaplin and a volume of interviews with National Book Award winners and finalists called "The Book That Changed My Life." THE book, I thought, reflecting on the implications of that title. Only one book changed your life?

I don't know about you, but when I consider the assorted libraries and book stores I've spent happy hours in, I know for certain it wasn't just one book that changed my life. It was all of them.

As I looked around this beautiful old building filled with books, eager patrons, and equally eager librarians, I thought to myself: Yes! Green Lake Library is back!

* * *

E-mail Jane at janeexplains@comcast.net.