Ok, call me crazy, but as I read all the entries from my fellow debs this week (love you all ladies!) I don’t seem to recall many fluffy oh-so-sweet encounters with the librarians who have come through my life. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate the tough work they do (those paper-cuts must be quite painful) but the librarians I’ve dealt with in my 37 years of life have always been cranky, fastidious, fashion-challenged octogenarians. 
I’m thinking back to a specific incident when I was in 3rd grade at Comstock Elementary in Miami. There I was, a budding wide-eyed mini-writer, trying to do some incredibly important research on unicorns (I had an obsession at the time) and I decided to visit my local library for any unicorn-related literature I could get my hands on. 
Apparently, the librarian on duty at the Allapatah Library did not share my love for mythical single-horned creatures (or just hadn’t had a roll in the ‘ol book heap in a while) because she was snappy and downright mean. The nameplate on her desk simply read “Mrs. C” and the kids from my class nicknamed her “C ya later” because that’s what we all wanted to do if she was around. The very second I greeted her with my goofy semi-toothless grin she bit my head off for inadvertantly knocking over a tiny cactus plant she kept at her desk. 
(It was as prickly as she was! Hey wait a minute, maybe the “C” in her name stood for cactus?? Hmm.. that never occurred to me before.) Anyhow, Mrs. C just didn’t seem to like children. Books she was obviously fond of…kids, not so much. I made my way over to non-fiction. Later, after shusshing me at least 18 times in the messy periodicals area (I swear I had nothing to do with it) she reminded me that it was getting late and I should probably run home. I glanced at the giant grey clock above the entrance. It was only 3 o’clock! Sure, I kept bugging her asking all kinds of annoying questions like “If unicorns really existed, what would they eat?” but in my defense, I was an inquisitive kid who constantly needed attention –and my mom wasn’t home. Anyhow, we did make peace years later when I ran into Mrs. C at the grocery store and helped her load up her car. She actually remembered my love for unicorns. I told her my new thing was skateboards, and she actually laughed. 🙂
This is an actual pic of my hometown library!! LOVE the internet!
Cute story, Maria. And, that’s cool that you found the pic of the library. But, now, in defense of Mrs. C, if you asking for help to look for a book is anything like you ordering a meal at a restaurant, I can’t blame the old bag, really. I think I’d have to call su-ker-i-tee!!! lol
Love ya!!
That’s too bad she was so grumpy with you! Glad you made up eventually, though… And did you get an A on the unicorn report?
How nice you got to help her all those years later. Did you drop her groceries?
Recently, I’ve found librarians to be rather snarky and friends have agreed. And why do people insist on talking at audible levels? Where are the whispers?
I had my piano recitals at the library – which changed it from a place of joy and reading and hiding in the stacks surrounded by books to a place of abject terror!
K