The Downtown Library

My home from my youngest days has been Melbourne, Florida. One of the earliest memories I have is the downtown library, its tall stacks of books, the groaning of the shelves under the weight of its contents, the small children’s section, the wooden card catalog with its smooth cornered drawers and cards typed with the occasional smudged printing from the librarian’s Selectric. Story day was the best, and the two man-made lakes outside were the wonder of every child. We brought our last crumbled piece of bread with the plastic wrapper that held the original loaf - throwing it to the ducks and the geese as they surrounded us. We’d walk with mommy around the lake, crossing over the little wooden bridge that was between the two lakes. The sun shone every day we were at the library and a trip home with armfuls of books was our just reward for being quiet.

Big Truck Show

We like to go to big truck shows as often as possible. The two main ones around Brevard County each year are at Satellite Beach (sponsored by the city I believe) and at the DeGroodt Library in Palm Bay (sponsored by the library). On April 22, from 11am to 2pm, will be “Big Truck Day 2006″ at DeGroodt (at the corner of Minton and Malabar roads). Unfortunately, we might not be able to make it this year. They always have lots of cool trucks for children to climb into and pretend to drive. Here is a picture of the children at last year’s show.

Only 40% of Brevard County has a Library Card?

Just read in Florida Today that only 214,715 Brevardians have public library cards. I’m guessing that the only other kind would be library cards for the universities (FIT, BCC, UCF, etc). I’m shocked that more of you don’t use the library.