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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Impromptu Storytelling

Today I spent some time with Aaron (son #4, who often adds comments on my blog). After taking care of some business, we moseyed around the countryside of Marion County, where he lives. I will post photos of Monongah, the power plant where Aaron works and other sights we saw in later posts.



One of the coolest things that happened was that we visited the small town of Fairview. I'd been there to tell stories about 6 years ago, and loved the library that was housed in a storefront. The staff were such positive, happy people, and they even had a library cat. So today I thought we'd stop in for a minute to visit--but when I looked for the library, it was gone! As we drove further into town I saw a new brick building, and we could see rows of books inside. A new library? I had to check it out.





Indeed, Fairview has a new library. When we went inside, I saw my old friends there, and they told me the library had been damaged by a fire in 2003, and that for 4 years they operated out of the town hall.

Local fundraising raised enough money to build a brand new building, and it's lovely (this photo is from the library's website.)










As it happened, we arrived about 15 minutes before preschool storytime, and the staff asked me if I'd like to tell a story to the children. Of course I would!









We shared the fun and participation of the story about the Giant Turnip, a good story for this time of year.










What a fun time! It was great to be telling stories to little ones again, and a true pleasure to see how success can come from tragedy.

As for the library cat? She relocated to a nearby store for a while, and then disappeared. The librarians are sure she's found a good home with a local family, and I believe they are right, because the cat was well-loved and care for by store patrons and townspeople. Someone probably fell in love with her and took her home.

3 comments:

  1. A small town does come together when they need to and raise the money needed for something as important as this library. I do hope the cat found a loving home. Looks like you had a good crowd.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this little town because it has such spirit. It was and probably still is a coal-mining town. I remember when I was there before they talked about the major mine in the area shutting down, and that many people had gone to work in Pittsburgh, about an hour or more away. There's a lot of heart in people who keep a place like that alive.

    ReplyDelete

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