Do You Remember Getting Your 1st Library Card?

I was at the library today and a little boy was getting a certificate commemorating his getting a library card for the first time. I remember getting my first library card many years ago. I'm pretty sure I was eight years old. It was the Aldenville Branch Library in Chicopee, MA. Back then, they were still paper cards and you had to sign out library books. Anyway, I remember that the librarian asked me if I knew what year I would graduate from high school and she was very impressed that I actually knew!

My parents actually weren't very big on going to libraries. The only times I was able to go was for school related research, but it was love at first sight for me. Libraries were (and are) magical places! All those books just begging to be read. Once I was able to go on my own, I became a frequent visitor.

Over the years, I amassed quite a collection of library cards - every library I visited required its own. Of course, now that has been rendered obsolete by a computerized system which my wallet appreciates because I only have to carry one card! 

Do you remember getting your first library card? Share your story here!

Comments

  1. Eric BakerJuly 4, 2011 at 3:56 PM

    I've been trying to remember my first card. I know that I don't have it though I do have some very old ones. My has to be from the Easthampton Library. It is right around the corner from the Maple Street School where I used to go. I do have some vague memories of being in the library.

    If not that then it would be the Holyoke Library which I do remember signing up for. That was down in the old children's section. I don't have quite the vivid memorable scene. My experience was more being herded like cattle under the haggard ministrations of the children's librarian who had to sign up all the new students who enrolled at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School that year. I was in the 5th grade at the time. We used to walk over to the library every now and then. Those were fun excursions.

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