I Heart the White Salmon Library

One of the things I loved the most about living in White Salmon was our local library.

My parents raised me to use the library. I can remember having my own library card around age 5 or 6; it was yellow and black. When we moved the summer before I started second grade, one of the first things we did in our new town was visit the library and get cards for everyone in the family.  Even now, my dad says that when he's no longer able to drive and get around much, he just wants a bus pass and a library card, and he'll be happy.

Visiting the library for the weekly story time quickly became a ritual for me when we moved to White Salmon in late 2005. It was a great chance to get out of the house--especially during the rainy season--and socialize with other moms (and dads) and let my children play and then check out books for the coming week. I met one of my closest friends at story time just around the time we both moved to White Salmon.  For the next 5 years I hardly missed a week. Once Holly was born and school was out for the summer, I got out of the habit. Even once summer ended and the girls (who were getting a bit too old for story time) were back in school, I still found it difficult to get out of the house and miss Holly's nap. Our attendance over the last two years was a bit more spotty, but we still made a point to attend all kinds of other library programs like the free Saturday movies (including popcorn and lemonade), Lego clubs, holiday celebrations (like Columbus Day), and all the fun summer reading puppet, magic, and reptile shows.

The amazing librarian behind most of the fun at the library is Heidi. We love her, as does just about every other kid in White Salmon--and even Hood River. Her story times drew a following from both sides of the river.  Easy-going and always ready to laugh, Heidi's warmth brought people right into her programs and made them feel welcome. No matter that your baby or toddler was crawling or wandering around during story time. No matter that every kid wanted to touch every puppet she brought out. Heidi had a way of making it work, and of remembering everyone's names. (Writing those name tags every week surely helped.) Even long after my older girls had grown out of story time and gone on to school, Heidi remembered them and always made them feel like they were the most important people that she had talked to that day. It also helped that for the last few years Heidi was our neighbor, just living a few doors away. We often walked to and from school with her and her kids.

 

Aside from all of the excellent programs, the library itself was just a great place to be. It had a wonderful children's area with soft benches and chairs for reading, tables with crayons and paper for coloring, a Lego table, and shelves full of fun (quiet, of course) toys. I used to think that the toys were just a great perk and that maybe they were superfluous for a library.  However, since moving and visiting our new library, I've learned that a few quiet toys in the children's area would be a great help in entertaining my pre-readers quietly while I choose books to read to them.

The computers were always a big attraction, as well. They had one computer connected to a few kid-friendly Internet sites such as pbskids.org and Tumblr Books, and the other computer had simple games and read-along stories, like Arthur and Little Critter. It's quite possible that Gunnar learned to use a mouse on these computers.

Adah is my reader. While all my children loved perusing the shelves for new books, they mostly wanted to take them home to read later. It was usually only Adah who could avoid the distractions of the toys and computers to simply sit and read.

 

Well, sometimes . . . 

We spent many a pleasant rainy, snowy, or too-hot afternoon in the library. The kids rarely argued and we often saw friends there, so for me it was a great time to chat or to simply sit and read a book to my children or by myself.

And no visit was complete without a departing visit to the circulation desk to get a stamp on the hand. Heidi even let the kids come behind the counter for a final photo-op.  I'm glad that my kids' first library experience could be so positive and I hope they will always love books and libraries as much as I do.  We miss the White Salmon library!!