~and we managed to keep them all in order~

     I had an interesting visit yesterday after school with a newspaper reporter back home in the small south central Kansas town of Andale.  He was doing a story for a special feature coming up in the local paper for that area (my hometown of Haven included) on the 100th anniversary of Haven High School.  In particular, he wanted to know about a time back in 1971 when the students at Haven moved into their brand new high school building a few blocks away from the old one.  The reporter was curious as to just how they moved the gazillions of volumes of books from the library in the old "pink gym" to the brand new library shelves that were located way more than a stone's throw away.  I knew the answer to his question and as I spoke with him about it, memories of a lifetime more than 4 decades ago came rushing back to this Kansas farm girl.  I may not know where I put my keys/cell phone/or purse some days, but I have never forgotten the experience of that morning, now so long ago.

     

     The newspaper clipping shown above ran in the Hutchinson News the day after students helped to move every single book from the shelves from one library to another.  That young 16-year old girl shown in the picture was the sole recipient of each of those books once they made the journey over.  She is me.

     I'll have to admit that the years have somewhat dimmed this old memory of mine and I no longer recall whether it was a school day or a Saturday.  But what I do know is that it took the concerted effort of a whole heck of a lot of kids and one courageous bus driver to get them placed upon the shelves.  We began in the early morning hours and by shortly after lunch time, the entire process was mostly completed.

     It all began that day over in the pink gym where our school's librarian, a quiet and reserved woman named Gladys Gilmore, was stationed to hand off the books to students.  Those same students were supposed to then become a part of a "human chain" as they boarded a school bus awaiting outside of the building to transport them to where I was stationed over in the new building.  If everyone followed directions and worked together, it would be an easy task.  More than likely.  Probably so.  I guess.  

     I may have forgotten the day of the week this was done on but I have never forgotten the task of shelving all of those books.  As the morning went on, things would appear to have be going pretty dang good with only minimal issues of students somehow switching places on the bus, taking their section of books with them.  Mr. Dewey's decimal system went awry from time to time but thankfully nothing major like misplacing entire sections of that sacred manner of organizing books.  Kids will be kids, you know?  That fact has been proven throughout history.

     By mid afternoon we were done and the end result would be a library graced with books and other periodicals that students many years into the future would be able to use and enjoy.  I was a library aide for my sophomore and junior years of high school and perhaps it was there that I truly learned to appreciate the written word and to have a love for the acquiring of knowledge.  Because I was the library aide that year, I was the one who was chosen to be the person to hand all of those books off to.  It was the early day equivalent of "on the job training for library aides~101".  

     Gladys Gilmore, now long gone from the earth, was a "keeper of the books" who made a lasting impact upon the young girl that I used to be.  Her gentle spirit and kind way was a good example to the shy and quiet teenage girl that once, I was.  As  I look back on it now, Mrs. Gilmore was a role model for me in the four years that I went to Haven High School.  I never really thanked her for that and I had to grow up to realize just how much she and other adults from that little south central Kansas town did for me and for so many others.  Yet I know now and most thankful for it.

     I was thankful for a nice memory yesterday afternoon and my heart was full after that phone conversation with a young man who was born 17 years after I graduated from high school.  He sounded like a great guy and a reporter who would do a good job in telling the story of my hometown's "place of higher learning".  I will be anxious to read it some day and remember more stories along the way.  It took the passage of a lot of years and moving more than 600 miles away from my home in Kansas before I truly and fully realized it but I'm sure glad that God chose Haven, Kansas as the town I would grow up in.  If you ask me where I am from, the answer will always be the same.

The old school~

Just behind those windows on the bottom floor was the infamous pink gym where the library was located.  One day, over 40 years ago, a whole lot of books found their way to a brand new home.  My first year of being a teacher (1979-80) was for U.S.D. 312 of Haven.  I taught for their district for 20 years.  My very first teaching assignment was that of a 7th and 8th grade Title I math teacher and my classroom was actually in that old building, up on the second floor in Mr. Hayes' old Algebra room.  Lots of great memories were to be made there.