In the wake of the passage of the Library Millage I would like to mention my initiation into the fantastic world of books. I don't even know if there are any bookmobiles around anymore but when we were living in the Parkside Projects the bookmobile would come by twice a week. My older sisters would get books from there and told me to check it out. I was five years old at the time. I remember getting "Horton Hears a Who". This opened up an entirely new world for me. From there I graduated to Bambi, The Black Stallion, and then the Hardy Boys Mysteries. I was hooked! When we moved out of the projects to different areas around the Conner Warren Dickerson Mack areas I started going to the Montieth Branch Library. I believe it is still in existence. I would spend hours in there. I loved the smells and peacefulness that was there. Long story short, I have never met anyone who is well read that has not made something out of his lot in life. I'm not saying that they became CEO's but they faced the world with a more positive attitude about life. I myself am a blue collar worker, but I've always managed to find work. I'm not saying reading was the only reason I have what I have but I feel it sure helped. I still read, I read fiction, non fiction, and anything that catches my fancy at the time. What I'm saying is have your children take an interest in the written word, it spurs the imagination like nothing else and sometimes takes you to a better place. So glad to see people still care about their libraries.
