"We
Move a Lot"
People
move a lot. Rents are raised and families are forced out, moving to
a cheaper part of town, moving in with relatives. Many kids lead highly
nomadic existences, shuttling from Mama to Daddy to Grandma and assorted
Aunties in the endless juggling act of poverty-stricken families.
It's impossible
to keep track of library cards, library books, homework. After lost
book charges get too high, kids can't check out any more. It's heart-breaking
to watch the light go out of a child's eyes when she has to leave
an eagerly-sought book behind. Library employees sometimes secretly
pay the charges.
One twelve-year-old
boy walked some fifteen miles to visit our library after his family
moved further out, to Burien. We mapped the location of the Burien
Library for him and copied out the telephone number and made him promise
that he would ride the bus home and next time telephone the Burien
Library and ask for directions to the library. Of course, maybe it
wasn't so much the library that he was looking for but the faces that
he knew.