More Beautiful Books and Films

Today was bookmobile day! Not only did I know this because it’s in my gmail calendar, but I got a phone call this morning from a live person reminding me that the bookmobile would be coming this afternoon and they had 10 items for me!

I can’t speak highly enough about the service. Not only do they have a pretty interesting selection of books, DVD’s and magazines, they will lend you materials from all over the province and I can do all of my selection online with my library card number.

Here’s my stash for this month:

Bonfire Night

Hurrah for our bonfire,
Oh, pile it up high,
For tonight…yes tonight…
When it blazes up bright
A traitor must die!
How he’ll crackle and burn,
Our jolly old Guy!
In the middle we’ll throw him,
No mercy we’ll show him,
The traitor must die!
Go, old Ragamuffin,
Don’t stop to ask why,
You know that the reason
Was Gunpowder Treason!
So, burn till you die!

(“Old Guy Fawkes” from a 19th Century Calendar)

We went to a Guy Fawkes bonfire the other night and got to meet some more of the Bear Riverites. People brought home-made munchies like peanut brittle and popcorn and thermoses of hot chocolate and cider to share. The bonfire hosts were from England. They saw their move to Nova Scotia as an opportunity to own a nice chunk of land, to raise their children in a small community and to unplug from the urban experience. They have a spectacular view of the valley and the stars were positively sparkling in the sky.

The bonfire tradition goes like this: you write down the names of people who irritate you and put the paper into the pocket of the Guy Fawkes effigy and the whole thing is tossed onto the bonfire. Your listed persons are supposed to get their ‘come uppance” along with the Guy. I’m not feeling any animosity towards anyone….REALLY…it must be all the ocean air!! Still, I couldn’t let this opportunity go by so I wrote the names of 3 former women bosses from 3 different places I’ve worked and tucked it into the shirt pocket of the Guy.

Most of the bonfire participants talked about the benefits of the public library and are avid library users. I know my library worker friends will be interested in this detail about library usage in the hinterland, because it is certainly different than that of Toronto with it’s 90 branches and millions of books and media. Because Bear River spans 2 counties…the river is the border and each county’s library system services the entire town.

The bookmobile is part of the Annapolis county library service but the Digby county library system doesn’t have a bookmobile. Instead, they will actually mail the books out. Artists here borrow audio tapes, for instance, to help get through the tedium of sanding beautiful wood pieces. Because the closest movie house is about an hour and a half away, people borrow DVDs from the library and share them around before they are due back. I talked to another person who is a regular listener of This American Life, a wonderful radio program and podcast from public radio in the US.

It seems there are many kindred spirits here, in many different kinds of ways.

Library Heaven

OK, so I have lived at close to 20 different addresses in my life [see list below] and all of those places were large cities. This is the first time I have lived in a small town (pop 800). It is also the first time that I have lived ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE LIBRARY!!

Well, that’s not entirely true. Sometimes the library here isn’t across the street at all. That’s because it’s a bookmobile.
I had looked up the monthly schedule and written it in my daytimer before we even moved here. Then, last week, I applied for a card online and it came in the mail yesterday. If I’d had time, I could have reserved specific books and DVDs for myself, but instead I browsed. They had quite an up-to-date well-organized collection on the bus. The best part was that I got to meet somemore townsfolk who introduced themselves and were really nice. Another volunteer group here, the Board of Trade, has a vision that Bear River would make a great eco-village and one of the members was signing out a book about straw-bale homes for her research.

So far for me, the nice advantage of a small town is being able to actually know people’s names and to be able to remember what they are interested in and what drives them. It’s not information overload….well maybe just visually what with the amazing NATURE, and landscape.

Most of the Places I’ve Lived:
Caithness Ave, Toronto
Oakville, Ontario
Spadina Ave, Toronto
Rose Ave, Toronto
Robert St, Toronto
Admiral Rd, Toronto
Spadina Rd, Toronto
Lonsdale Ave, Toronto
Clinton Street, Toronto
Leipzig, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Cranbrooke Ave, Toronto
Yonge Street, Toronto
Oshawa, Ontario
Cranbrooke Ave, Toronto
Queensdale Ave, Toronto
Bear River, Nova Scotia