bookmarkings

My earliest connections to books are rooted in the nearly-defunct vehicle known as the bookmobile. Every week the clunky chariot would arrive at the neighborhood grade school ready to share three (!) books to any child with a library card. Neighborhood kids and their parents would line up and clamber into the van from the front. Owing to the cramped aisles, not a whole lot of browsing was possible. Somehow we all managed to emerge at the rear of the vehicle, with our three books clutched to our chests.  At age five, I was beyond proud to present my blue card (blue was for kids, yellow for adults) Each card had a metal insert with an identifying number pressed into it. Much like the credit card machines of later years, the number would be used to document patron's usage.  With the expansion of our town's library system, the bookmobile eventually fell out of use.  Decades and hundreds of books later, I had nearly forgotten about that special introduction to the world of boo...