liberry donations and their secrets (OT will like this one)

Category: dribblings

at the ‘brary we get lots of donated books, magazines, videos, etc., and we greatly appreciate all donations (unless the books are mildewed and full of bugs. then we judge you. not on your cleanliness, just on your thinking that we would want your mildewed, stinky, bug-infested books. if your books are gross we toss them. we don’t even want them in our building.) if we can’t use the books (clean, mildew-free, no silverfish) that are donated in our own collection, we put them in our on-going booksale. and the people who donate the books know this. we tell them up front, “hey, if the cataloguer decides not to keep any of these for the collection they will go to the booksale.” and if they have a problem then they can take the books back or leave them. i’ve never had anyone take the books back.

all this to say: if you’re going to donate some books to the ‘brary? might be a good idea to fan through them first to make sure there’s nothing stuck between the pages. we find lots of letters, postcards, photographs, airline tickets, grocery lists, and sometimes we find crazy things.

so hannah, west, and i were in the booksale section looking for books to buy so we could make art projects out of them. well, hannah was buying them to read, but west and i were looking for books to cut up. in one of the books hannah was looking at these two largish bookmarks (these were free bookmarks we had up at the desk about 3 years ago. they’re about IRS tax info websites and how to e-file.) fell out and they were covered in purple and blue handwriting. the words all over these bookmarks are awesome in that why is this stuff written on these bookmarks, but they’re sad overall. i’ve tried to space it out like it is on the back of the bookmark and it seems like the blue parts are written in as afterthoughts. here goes:

1. The day we married, he said
    I didn’t kiss him
    I don’t remember at all It was at
    home I guess I might
    have been embarassed
2. I don He said
    I didn’t care for
    his family – He
    always went over
    board with my family
    I never told him
    to only his mother
3. I didn’t help
    him enough when
    his daddy died.
    So much hurt
   had transpired
(before that happened)
      maybe I didn’t
4. He blamed me
    for his Daddy
    dying – (it had
   been a bad week-
   end) it was smoking
   heart disease &
   other stuff.
         not me
5. Didn’t talk good
    to him when he (back)
     traveled. Have
    no Idea what he
    is talking about
    His comment no one
   would have stayed
         with me
When he traveled
the minute he got
home he called
them and talked
to way in the
morning – he sure
didn’t miss me

okay that was the first bookmark. here’s the second:

He said my family
does not hug
and show emotion
maybe that is
why I needed
it from him –
so much
so much
how about
affection
once in a blue
moon
6. He is always
telling me I
am pushing him
over the edge
His edge is right on his
shoulder
He did that at the
cabin when I
wanted him to
help me move
furniture in off
porch – never time for me so I could
go on out to Mother’s
He wanted to take
Munchie on a walk to the creek 1st and
a long way off
me wait. The
night before I
had waited in
the cold while
he walked Munchie
I had to wait
at the Tomato house –

and that’s all that’s written on the second one.

sad, yes? i know. this is a lesson for all of you, okay?
1. if you’re going to journal, keep it in a journal.
2. CHECK YOUR BOOKS BEFORE YOU DONATE.
3. that guy’s an asshole.

bonus is, of course, that we have a new catch phrase, “I had to wait at the Tomato house.”

Tags: library