My summer vacation as a kid involved getting up at the crack of dawn and riding my bike, playing with water balloons all day long and coming home at dusk – maybe an art class or two thrown in and don’t forget Summer Reading Program at the Library. It is amazing how times have changed. Now it is so structured, science camp, math camp, art camp, music camp, yes that is a tad of an exaggeration but not much, if you make it to the library Summer Reading.
One of my fondest memories was the summer reading program at the library and Mrs. Infante. Mrs. Infante was the children’s Librarian of the Escanaba Carnegie Library (the building below isn’t it amazing?) an amazing person and has the best story reading voice EVER! We would ride our bikes to the library, first stop when we got on the inside always was the water fountain (coldest water ever). We would then walk into this amazing dome room smelling of old books and take and immediate right to the basement where the children’s library was. The stairwell was narrow you could walk down it with both hands touching either side of the wall and it was yellow stairwell (very yellow). You would emerge into this open room with book shelves, desks and reading areas. The toy area was on the other side of the desk on the right side. There was also a play house, lots and lots of books and the filing cabinets with the magnets (this is were my fascination with cool magnets began.) We pick out our books, our summer reading program card would be initialed by Mrs. Infante – P.I. 🙂 it was the smiley face that always got me. The smiley face made me feel special like I had accomplished something, every summer I looked forward to the Summer Reading Program. The library moved to a different building when I was in Jr. High and honestly it was never the same, Mrs. Infante was still there but the ambiance was missing, the smell, the water cooler, the yellow stairwell.
Photo by ©Gerald D. Tang – http://tangsphoto.photoshelter.com/image/I0000vDXq9RtVK.s
We actually have quite a bit planned this summer – Summer Reading Program at the library, Swimming Lessons at the Aquatic Center, maybe even Karate Lessons and of course a giant vacation planned to Michigan for my brother’s wedding. I plan on using this summer teaching and playing with the kids – I am also looking at cutting back my computer time, so if I don’t post as much this summer it is because I am learning, playing and experiencing life with my kids. I am thinking of cutting back to 3-5 days no weekends just to make my life a little easier. My goal is to have a different project every day – something that will probably stop the after the first week but I have lofty goals! It will also give me a chance to type How-to posts and concentrate a little more on the Digi Shoppe.
Welcome summer and I am excited to see what is in store for us this year!
Who Are You Calling Crafty? 