Yesterday, Darcy, Flora, Ned and I went to an author’s fair at the Tahlequah Library. Rain pelted us on the way and the day was dark, but did that dampen our spirits? Of course not! Our hearts were light and sunny and that’s what mattered.
The authors were put into the Carnegie Room, which is what the old, original Carnegie Library is now called. That was the library of my youth, the one ruled over by the small capable hand of Miss Gladney, who talked in hushed tones and insisted on quiet in her library. I was in awe of Miss Gladney with her many cats who wandered in and out and under the old rock building. In no way did I want to incur one of her frowns. Therefore, when in that sacred domain, I whispered! I well remember the pungent smell that will always mean Carnegie Library to me, the shelves and rows of books, and the excitement I felt in choosing books to check out and take home.
Yesterday, I listened for the ghostly sound of long ago meows, but didn’t hear one single cat. Even the scent is gone from the library, along with the small, stern librarian, but the memories linger. I got a picture of the double front doors. They are blocked off now, unused and shadowy and the picture is dark but–well–that seems to go right along with times that are past, doesn’t it?
A Friends of the Library quilt hung on the wall, completely hand stitched and hand quilted. A beautiful quilt, brightening the walls.
And there, at a table, Darcy and Flora and the mysteries that center around Levi, Oklahoma (actually a pseudonym for Tahlequah) and Ned who inherited a lovely Victorian house that looks very much like the Thompson House in Tahlequah, set up shop. But, you know the really fun thing? It was the friends who gathered there around my table. Norma, a dear friend for many years, Jeannie, a Tahlequah author who writes exciting historical fiction; Darlene, another Tahlequah author whose research results in some fine history of the area, and my sister-in-law Linda gathered and talked, and laughed and talked some more. It was a fun day!
After lunch at what was the Redmen Shop years ago and is now a good restaurant, Linda, my brother Richard, and I talked some more. A rainy day, but inside, the sun shone with good will and laughter. And that’s the important thing, isn’t it?
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