Column by Donna Jobe Cronk
I remember the day.
I may have been 10, and went with the neighboring Chapman kids and their mom to Liberty. I suppose their mother was grocery shopping at Woodruff’s, close to the Union County Public Library, and we were killing time while we waited.
We walked through the lower-level library doors. I had never been there before. The Chapman girls had library cards, and said I should get one. So I did –my first library card!
It was a defining moment, although I can’t tell you what or if I checked anything out that day.
Who could imagine that more than half a century later, I’d be in that room we entered through those side doors, standing at a lectern, giving a talk about the day I got the library card—and about my third book? Yet there I stood Saturday, with some family, some friends from those days, and some community folks listening.
Library Director Julie Jolliff wasn’t even born when my library card was issued. I think I surprised her by having it.
That’s a pack rat for you—and for that I make no apologies.
I told some stories from my new memoir, There’s a Clydesdale in the Attic: Reflections on Keeping and Letting Go, that relate to growing up in Union County at Rural Route 1, Brownsville. There was talk after the signing of some other venues I might speak at locally.
My personal “drop the mic” moment came when an audience member, Janice, told a story about my grandma! The story even related to some artifacts I displayed that day. When you get to be in your sixties and come across someone who remembers your grandma, who was born in the 1890s? Priceless.
If only for a couple hours that day, I felt as though I had never left home; had remained a part of this community. Such a good feeling.
Julie filled me in on the many ways the library serves the community. I follow the UCPL page on Facebook and via other local media, and the ways they serve all the population from toddlers to the most senior community members is evident. It is a vibrant, active place.
It’s not “just” a library. Not that any library is—as a library introduces us to a world at our fingertips—through books written over millennia as well as the most current bestsellers, periodicals, and other forms of modern media. Yet those are only a small part of what modern libraries do in and for their communities.
I could never have imagined today being able to read a checked-out library “book” via my telephone. Yet that is what I routinely do before drifting off to sleep at night.
Libraries provide programming for young and old, offer services such as meals and daycares, gathering spaces, serve as clearinghouses for family and local history, provide answers to questions and how-to information. Libraries are, in fact, the community centers for activities, conversation, and daily life.
I am inspired and delighted by Julie’s enthusiasm for her job, and by her love for the community that I too love. I thank her, as well as Cindy Morgan, for inviting me into their world, just as the Chapman girls invited me with them into the library so many years ago.
Through the years, and in particular, during the last nine on my author journey, I’ve been in many libraries, large and small, in a variety of towns and settings from A to Z—Attica to Zionsville. Each library and its personnel and patrons come with a distinct vibe and personality. I love how they are not all the same, but rather, quite the opposite of the same!
It is a blessing to see that the first library I ever entered remains in good hands.
I think the good people of Ukraine are showing us that it is good to love your homeland, good to feel a link with a place and a people. Good to value your roots. How could it not be?
I’ve always felt those things deeply about my little slice of the sweet land of Union County, Indiana. A little farm community? You betcha.
It’s the permanent address of my heart.
Union County native Donna Cronk is retired from a career as a newspaper journalist. Her new book is There’s a Clydesdale in the Attic: Reflections on Keeping and Letting Go. Book clubs are a great fit for this book. She loves attending the end discussion if a club wishes. Reach out a newsgirl.1958@gmail.com for information.