I Miss..........

[skategreen]

I miss library due date cards.

 

The other day I was on that train ride headed home, musing through a book from the library. There at the back I found the little manila card slot, with the old library due date card snugly stowed.

 

It has date stamps on it...no year, but I can see that this book sat upon the shelf for months at a time in-between being rather popular.

 

These days when I check books out, they give me that whispy thin (modern) paper print out of the various due dates. No longer can I just look in the back/front of the book and check the card. No, I gotta keep track of that damn paper or risk 5 cent daily fines.

 

I now have to have a special magnet and place on the fridge for that scrap of paper. Ohhh it's all so complicated and bothersome. and....

 

it lacks a certain warmth.

 

There on the train, I fondly held the card ... and summer Saturday bike rides to the library wafted from the card, around and about me. Simple happy times ... slow days like honey ....afternoons curled in a chair ... held in my hand ... in a library due date card.

 

Five cents a day. Five Cents a day! I found this to be a droll little thought and amusement. They still charge but a nickel a day.

 

Adding to this amusement was the gaudy neon orange sticker placed upon the pocket:

 

PLEASE NOTE

TO SAVE TAX DOLLARS

No overdue notice(s) will be sent on this material. You are responsible for its return by the date on card in pocket. The next notice you receive will be a bill.

 

Spoken like a true Pissed Off and Tired Of It Librarian.

 

All this amusement, from a mere snoop of the back of a book.

 

I miss library due date cards.

 

What do you miss?

[angie]

Oh, Skate......I like to buy books. Tag sales, the 'For Sale' section at the library where you can buy a book for a quarter...then I forget about them, and stumble on them years later and have a great book on my hands. I just rediscovered "The Mists of Avalon". I must've bought it six years ago. Fantastic read. There is a lovely place in CT that I think you would just die if you ever saw it. YOu can walk out with boxes of boxes. And spend hours pouring over the collections all while smelling the sweet scent of old books.

 

http://www.bookbarnniantic.com/

The Book Barn maintains a broad selection of gently used books in most subject areas, with emphasis on contemporary fiction, collectible and signed literature, antique collecting, World War II, naval history, cookbooks, mystery and detective novels, children's fiction, and various other fiction and non-fiction subjects. We have at least a smattering of books on every topic you could imagine.The primary mission of The Book Barn is to make money ... oops ... wrong motivator .... The primary mission of The Book Barn is, of course, to serve as a provider of books, uniting people and books together in biblioholic bliss. The Book Barn valiantly attempts to fulfill this mission as we continuously add and refine our collections to bring the best used books available to our customers. We recommend checking in periodically for improvements, additions, and rearrangements. We presently have over 150,000 books at The Book Barn and add hundreds every day. This means, of course, that things are always moving around and what was in the Main Barn yesterday might well be in the Haunted, today. If you're not sure where something is, why not stop in at the desk first and ask one of our helpful staff?

Our Employees

Most days we look forward to visits by a number of "old faithfuls" -- customers who come in at least once a week if not every day -- and to some good conversation with them about books, or the issues of the day. We also get a number of people coming in to sell books. Part of the fun is that we never know what kinds of books are going to come in on any given day. Maybe we'll get a rare first edition One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, maybe a beautifully illustrated volume of Blake, maybe a box of paperback Nora Roberts. Whatever we get, we're always glad to put it on the shelf, because we know somebody will come in and be happy to find it there.

 

The Book Barn carries many books that are unavailable at new bookstores or even at public libraries. We are frequently the "last hope" for someone seeking a given title. We enjoy being able to help people find the special book they've been searching for, sometimes for years, and are more than willing to go out of our way to help you search.

[manicmonday]

I think your waxing poetic about a past long gone, taken over by technology. Since I'm a child of the new technology, I like it. I like books and the library, but I would never think to miss due date cards. I don't miss the file card system either.

 

I do miss lunch rooms trays, and recently bought some at a garage sale because I like me food seperated and I liked the trays.

[skategreen]

I think your waxing poetic about a past long gone, taken over by technology. Since I'm a child of the new technology, I like it. I like books and the library, but I would never think to miss due date cards. I don't miss the file card system either.

 

I do miss lunch rooms trays, and recently bought some at a garage sale because I like me food seperated and I liked the trays.

 

yes, I understand. I would never expect anyone else to miss the library due date cards.

 

The point was more....Oh! The little things that take us by surprise, to find....

that we miss them

 

they bring back memories.

 

or

 

We just miss them.

 

Melmac!! Melmac Lunch Trays! In pastel green or cream color..oh yes! I remember them well. They conjure that horrid Lunch Room Smell. -- so I don't miss that! But the speckled and solid color trays...oh yes.

 

How about plastic lunch boxes?

 

I miss the smell of new plastic lunch boxes, with my favorite TV show emblazoned across the sides. I miss that smell, and opening the lunch box to find Mum's good lunches.

[skategreen]

Oh, Skate......I like to buy books. Tag sales, the 'For Sale' section at the library where you can buy a book for a quarter...then I forget about them, and stumble on them years later and have a great book on my hands. I just rediscovered "The Mists of Avalon". I must've bought it six years ago. Fantastic read. There is a lovely place in CT that I think you would just die if you ever saw it. YOu can walk out with boxes of boxes. And spend hours pouring over the collections all while smelling the sweet scent of old books.

 

 

ME TOO ME TOO ME TOOOO!

 

Yes! I have spent many a lovely lovely hour meandering second hand book stores. LI is sadly bereft of them - I've yet to find that treasure trove. I finally hunted up the local library. I must admit, having totally lost in the quest for the old passion of Used Bookstores...I've resorted to Amazon to get the rare books I so need. It's not the same..it's never the same.

 

The joy of hunting through a stumbled upon store and finding - LO! A much sought after Nevil Shute or Robert W. Service! or or! so many... My shelves are full of them. Amazon is great for the impossible finds, as it Ebay. I've saved a lifetime of searching for a few.

 

I'd love to come to CT and snoop yer bookstore. What city is it in? I don't get up there at all..but that's not to say I can't!

 

One Last Bit ...... my dearest Punkin daughter? In Europe, travelling these past months... what'd she write home about and say, "OH MUM!!!" about? The Strand Bookstore... yep. She's a page outta the old book fer sure.

[angie]

It's in Niantic...not sure exacly where, but near the shoreline. We'd love to have you visit our fine state The shoreline is beautiful this time of year!

I believe it's somewhere between exits 69 and 70 off I-95. If you check the link they may have directions

[manicmonday]

yes, I understand. I would never expect anyone else to miss the library due date cards.

 

The point was more....Oh! The little things that take us by surprise, to find....

that we miss them

 

they bring back memories.

 

or

 

We just miss them.

 

Melmac!! Melmac Lunch Trays! In pastel green or cream color..oh yes! I remember them well. They conjure that horrid Lunch Room Smell. -- so I don't miss that! But the speckled and solid color trays...oh yes.

 

How about plastic lunch boxes?

 

I miss the smell of new plastic lunch boxes, with my favorite TV show emblazoned across the sides. I miss that smell, and opening the lunch box to find Mum's good lunches.

 

 

 

I went to a very small school, think 16 in my class, and our school was homemade and wonderful. Mmmmmm, God I do miss that. I had a metal Strawberry Shortcake lunch box, for what reason I don't know.

[manicmonday]

Ok, today I was thinking about buy postage stamps and I realize I miss getting mail. I like postcards from other countries with foreign writing, foreign stamps the whole thing. I like looking at my Grandmother's photo album and looking at what she had received over the years from different countries.

 

I like email, but there is something about opening a letter in the mailbox.............

[Mohammed_Rots_In_Hell]

I miss programming Assembler on IBM360's with 13 shoeboxes full of punch cards representing an entire Accounts Receivable package!

[skategreen]

Ok, today I was thinking about buy postage stamps and I realize I miss getting mail. I like postcards from other countries with foreign writing, foreign stamps the whole thing. I like looking at my Grandmother's photo album and looking at what she had received over the years from different countries.

 

I like email, but there is something about opening a letter in the mailbox.............

 

For this very reason, I still mail. Often. To Many.

 

Letters and packages, decorated, painted - glitter & glue, stickers, magazine cut outs, painstaking painting, etc.!

 

For years and years I have bought small denomination stamps so that I could cover half the envelope with stamps. They look so "exotic" to rcv.

 

I know just what you Mean!

[skategreen]

I miss programming Assembler on IBM360's with 13 shoeboxes full of punch cards representing an entire Accounts Receivable package!

 

 

The best damn promo that ever went out, that we ever printed and distributed, was on a ton of cast off freely given old computer cards donated. Man. Those suckers pulled.

[phreakwars]

I miss the old small town I used to live in, before it became infested with immigrant workers.

.

.

[ToriAllen]

I miss my pool...

My family weekends were centered around the pool. Mom and Dad used to joke about worshiping the Sun God. We would sneak out of church early on Sunday to go home and jump in the pool. Dad hooked up a system of black pipes to the pump which he run over the roof of the shed and back to the pump again. It kept the pool nice and warm year 'round.

[builder]

I miss my pool too. But not that kinda pool. I mean 8 ball pool.

 

I was registrar, score-keeper, publicity officer, and regular player in an association of over one hundred people. I really miss that.

 

And the cameraderie.

[RoyalOrleans]

I miss builder's old avatar.

 

This new one, the construction worker, keeps smiling at me with them pearly whites. Kind of freakish.

[Chi]

I miss builder's old avatar.

 

This new one, the construction worker, keeps smiling at me with them pearly whites. Kind of freakish.

 

It makes you feel gay, huh? lol.

[TheJenn88]

I know what you mean, Skate. I don't know at what point my library switched to printouts when signing out a book, but they did. Seeing as I usually buy books instead of borrow them, I missed the transition between the stamped cards and computer printouts.

 

The cards just give the book and the mysteries inside more authenticity. The whole experience is just more olde and .. more easy to revel in when we're in a day and age that is surrounded by technology. Books almost feel ancient now - at times, that is, and it's just a neat experience to have PAPER (gasp) take you back to the days where people would read novels in front of a fire.

 

content sigh

 

I love books. I can't imagine any surprises being downtrodden by the normalcies of technology.

[RoyalOrleans]

It makes you feel gay, huh? lol.

 

Well... not gay gay. Gay in a Viking way, not in a prison way.