Recently, someone on the YALSA-bk listserv shared a link to Awful Library Books, a blog that shares covers and tidbits about books that have been weeded (recently!) from library collections.   It then made the rounds of our state listserv.  The examples on the Awful Library Books blog are funny, yet sad at the same time.  They brought back memories of my first weeding adventure as a brand new librarian at Wagener-Salley.

I couldn’t get over the books that I found.  It made me wonder if anyone had ever weeded the collection before.  There were books as old as the early 1900s – some that say copyright 1896, but not sure if that’s true – could be, but I’m skeptical.   I kept a few of the books I weeded in an archive section, simply because they were either ones I wanted to take a longer look at or too priceless:  beautiful field guides from the 1930s; a Grays Anatomy from the 1950s, Essays by Emerson (the 1896 book), and this little gem…

The Happy Bookers: A Playful History of Librarians and Their World from the Stone Age to the Distant Future

by Richard Armour w/ Appropriate Illustrations by Campbell Grant
Copyright 1976
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York

This was too funny!  I enjoyed paging through it and looking at the illustrations.  I’ll admit that I haven’t read it yet.  It’s been sitting in my back storage closet for when I have that all elusive “free time” I keep hearing about.

Check out these page shots I scanned of the present and future librarians and technology (early ebook reader??)

A.  “She’s come a long way.”  – I guess that’s a past “librarian” and a “today” librarian.  Actually, that’s a pretty accurate depiction of me “today” – just add a few pounds <grin>.

B.  “Disastrous breakdowns.” – I remember those filmstrip projectors from my childhood, but I’ve never had to work one before – I’m so glad for DVDs and streaming video we have now!

C. “Dial a book” – An early look at ebooks?  Not too far off, just not quite right.

Today was the 5th annual Garcia Theatre Project One-Act Play Festival at USC Aiken.  Our school performed Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart.”

Our students were awesome and the lady behind me said “we were robbed” when we didn’t win best play.  I said, “Thank You,” but agreed with the judges that our rival school, Ridge Spring Monetta High, deserved the Best Play award.  Their two actresses were amazing.

Aiken HS and North Augusta High also performed, and Aiken High’s play, “Girl Town,” won runner up.   As for Wagener-Salley and our students, Samuel Leguizamon received Best Actor, Eden Wells received a special award for Best Sound Crew, and our play received Best Set Decoration & Costumes.  The judges also had lots of praise for our efforts to tackle a literary play and the fact that we (Mrs. Shaffer and I) adapted the story ourselves.  They were MOST impressed that Sam was able to memorize and DELIVER the basically, 15 minute monologue without any mistakes.  As I said, this is the fifth year that we’ve competed in the festival and that I co-sponsored our school’s drama club.  Each year we (and by we, I mean the drama club students as well as us sponsors) continue to grow, and while we didn’t receive the coveted best play, I think we did darn well!   I’m proud of all of the students (both ours and those from the other schools) and believe that they are all winners.  Also, shout out to Mrs. Jean Pesce, who did an outstanding job on our costumes!  That woman is amazing!  Who knew you could turn gold buttons to silver by covering them in aluminum foil?  Or should I say, I never would have thought of that!

Thanks again to Mr. & Mrs. Carlos Garcia, USC Aiken & the Performing Arts faculty, Public Education Partners, Aiken County Public Schools, and this year’s additional sponsors: RCS Corporation, the American Association of University Women, URS Washington Division, and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC for their support and recognition of the need for theatre and the arts in public education.

Final shout out to Natalie Fox, aka. Organizer Extrodinaire, and Diane Mangiante of PEP – thank you for all you do for Aiken schools and for continuing to organize the GTP festival each year.

Cathy Nelson over at the TechnoTuesday blog tagged me for a meme started by Shannon Wham over at the Books, Bytes, & Grocery Store Feet as a reflection on what things we used to do that you can’t do any more.  So here’s my list:

1. “Myrtle Beach Days – have some fun in the waves” (by the Fantastic Shakers) -  Just about every summer when I was little, our extended families would rent a house at Myrtle Beach for a week.  This was the back in the 70’s and 80’s.  Of course, childhood colors my recollection, but I don’t remember lots of crowds or commercialism that you find there now.  I do know that the place wasn’t near as built up as as it is now.  I remember all day on the beach, crab boils, sleeping on the screened in porch, and lots of laughter.  The one thing that hit me this past November was the absence of The Myrtle Beach Pavilion.  This is a photo my Mom took of the empty Pavilion lot.  One of the joys of the beach was walking along Ocean Blvd and seeing all the lights and ending up at the Pavilion.   Today, the Pavilion is gone, and that section of the strip is bare – it hurt my heart to see it that way.  I also don’t like that there aren’t as many miniature golf/putt-putt courses or water slides – there used to be one or the other practically on every corner.  Now you have outlet malls, shopping centers, and development everywhere instead.  It seems to me no one visits to go to the actual beach anymore, but to shop or stay indoors.

2. Simpler play -  When I was growing up, there were only four TV stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS) – cable was expensive and so were Betamax machines (for those of you youngins out there that was the precursor to VHS tapes).  My cousins, neighborhood friends, and I would play OUTSIDE all day – unless it rained.  We would roam the neighborhood, be in and out of each others houses – no locked doors – and spending hours in the “play house” that my uncle built.  These days, kids hardly ever play outside.  I also think we got to stay innocent a lot longer than the kids today.

3. Movie Projectors – Shannon brought up that he missed drive-in movies – which I have never been privileged to visit, but I may have to go to “The Big Mo” one of these days.  However, I miss seeing our old home movies on the reel-to-reel movie projector Mom had – I loved the production of how long it took to set up the projector and screen.  I loved the sound the film made moving through the machine and that it felt like we had our own little movie theater in our living room with me, uhhmm, I mean my family as the stars.  Watching the tapes or DVDs just doesn’t feel the same.

4. No seat belts – Shannon mentioned riding in the back window of cars.  While I don’t remember ever doing this – my Mom had/has a ‘75 Camaro that didn’t really have a space between the ledge and window – I do remember riding around in the back of vans, cars, and station wagons w/out seat belts.  I vividly remember riding from South Carolina to Tennessee in the back of a van on a beach lounge chair!  In fact, that same chair was my bed at one time when we got to my relatives in Tennessee and there was a shortage of beds.  When we went on trips in my aunt’s Impala (I think that’s what it was), when we got tired, we’d typically sit on the floor with our heads on the seat.  My aunt later had a station wagon and us girls would lay in the back cargo area on the drive home, even if no one was sitting in the back seat.  No one ever gave any thought to our not wearing seat belts, since it wasn’t a law back then.

Okay, that’s all I can think of at the moment.  Sorry, no illegal deeds in my past – I was always the good girl – spoiled rotten, but scared to do anything bad.  I’ve always been a people pleaser.

So, you know how I feel about tagging folks, but I am interested to see what Pat “loonyhiker” Hensley would choose, so Pat, “tag, your it!”  If anyone else wants to continue the meme, feel free!