At that time and place you could borrow books, puzzles and record albums from The Carnegie Library in Rockport, Massachusetts. On a bright July morning in the mid 70s my mother and I were returning books and a record album before walking the rest of the way to Front Beach for a day of swimming lessons and picnicking. In fact, the other kids had gone on ahead and were no doubt already swimming to the float and splashing about with glee, leaving the books/record-returning task to us.
It was a Bert and I album, so much fun to lie about the living room at 3 Allen Avenue and listen to with cousins and siblings. The books slid through the return slot smoothly, but Bert and I would not fit and probably should not have been shunted through the slot anyway. We were reluctant to take the record to the beach and return it later; sand and vinyl weren’t a good combination. And we didn’t want to wait around for 15 minutes until the library opened!
My mother noticed an open window about 6 feet off the ground at one end of the library and began to call out to anyone inside that we needed to return a record album before going to the beach. There was no response. Turning to me, she said, “I’ll give you a boost up and you can return the record to the librarians inside.” I smiled gamely. Life with my mother was always an adventure.
Up I went as my mother set 10 fingers for me to step into. I scrambled onto the wide windowsill and called out, “YOO HOOO!!” Mother handed Bert and I up to me. “I need to return a record! We are going to the beach and don’t want it to get sandy!” Two startled librarians appeared from behind the desk and out of the stacks. The younger one began giggling while the older one proceeded to chew me out! She wanted to know what I thought I was doing??!! I explained, “It’s okay! My mother is down there and she gave me a boost up here and we want to return this record because we are going to the beach!” The old librarian wasn’t having any part of our shenanigans and stated that we would have to wait for the library to open! My mother was waving at her happily from the ground and calling out, “Thank you!” The younger librarian took the record from my reach, while I still listened to the old librarian berate me for climbing through the window! I thanked them both, turned and slid off the windowsill into my mother’s grasp. We turned and waved as we headed to the beach. The younger librarian was laughing out loud at this point, while the older one flushed with fury and indignation!
At that time and place you could borrow books, puzzles and record albums from The Carnegie Library in Rockport, Massachusetts, but never again did we return a record album through an open window, six feet off the ground!
The middle window is the one I was boosted up to by my mother.