Library Notes
June 23, 2003
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Story Hour, yet again at the library. January first was just yesterday and it's now story time. With summer heat, and all the humidity, causing us to find the nearest air conditioned place to go and catch a breath that is not filled with an "orange" level of allergy-triggering stuff to redden our eyes and "sniffle" our noes.
Same place, same time, same free baby-sitting service: Tuesday afternoons, at the library, from 3:00 to 4:00 PM.
I've tried for years to charge Mamas for baby-sitting. They just smile outrageously, sit down and peacefully read for an hour. Or get in their car and drive off happily to spend an hour at the grocery store, being able to remember what in the world they came after. Or going to one of the antique stores, quietly wondering about, without worrying constantly about having to try and figure out how to pay for a $3,000.00 antique their lil' darlin' just dropped or sat on or knocked over. I've not collected one red cent in all these twenty-one years, I'll have you know. Now, does that sound like taking advantage of a poor soul or not?
I have one man who brings his two young 'uns and threatens to not pick them up later. I have to tell him every year that he cannot leave them here.
Then there have been a few that I was afraid had done exactly that, when they have shown up thirty minutes late to collect theirs. Perhaps I need to put up a sign about unclaimed merchandise!
So far this summer, we've dug for dinosaur bones in the sand. We've had a history lesson about Audie Murphy and made an American flag, using handprints of the children. Bet you've not heard of that kind of flag before. It came from the creative mind of Joanna Robertson, who is collaborating with me on the fun-hour this summer. If that name is familiar, she was seated in the line-up of veterans on "Veterans Day/Audie Murphy Day in Farmersville"
The Cash Cow, from First Bank, will graze her way to this event on July 8th and August 12th. I've not been able to get one word out of that cow. So, you kids need to come and see what she'll be up to and what goodies she might have. Never can tell.
With only six more such opportunities at this free baby-sitting service I speak of, until school begins again, you mothers should get your act together and take advantage of me.
We even have tokens for free ice cream from the Dairy Queen and free hamburgers from Whataburger.
Time's awastin'. Tim's flying by, as all of you already know. Come! (See, I'm a sucker for punishment!)
To show you just how nice I am, I'll even tell you about a new book that you could sit contentedly and read while I do your work for you, for only an hour, mind you.
Richard Paul Evans has taken pen in hand again and turned out a new one, entitled "The Last Promise", and can you read this and see if it is something that you would be interested in.
"When Eliana, still called Ellen by her close friends back in America, moved to Italy the future was bright with promise. Tuscany held magic in its sprawling vineyards, great food, and centuries of art. It was a life of the senses, perfect for a blossoming, talented young artist such as Eliana. Her family and friends back home all thought she had made the right choice in following her heart and the man she fell in love with and married, by moving back to his native country. In America, Eliana's story was that of a fairy tale.
But in Italy, in the small, rustic village nestled in the Chianti countryside, Eliana finds her husband to be a very different man. Over time he distances himself from her, leaving Eliana to care for their young son, struggling with the asthma that threatens to take his life.
Although she longs for the romance she'd known in America, Eliana is happy as a mother and with the time she spends with her child: yet when fellow American Ross Story, a deeply thoughtful man with a mysterious passion for art, arrives at the same villa, a chance encounter causes Eliana and Ross to look at their lives anew. And with their discovery that individuals may change and grow, they can never forget that the bonds of family last forever.
In "The Last Promise" Richard Paul Evans spins a passionate, bittersweet tale about the fantastic joy and great sorrow life can throw our way."