For a Personalized Autographed copy of “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME” or “WOODEN & ME” use the PayPal link on my home page or mail a check for $25 to:
Woody Woodburn
400 Roosevelt Court
Ventura, CA 93003
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“Friends of Library” Are Friends To All
I am fairly certain I got my first library card before I could even print my name, which goes a long way in telling you I had a masterpiece mom.
While I can’t remember the first book I ever checked out, the first unforgettable one was “Where The Wild Things Are.” In my mind’s eye as I peel back the calendar pages, I re-re-re-checked it out week after week until the librarian finally told me I had to return Max and his beasts for other kids to enjoy.
So it was at a modest library on Tremont Road in Upper Arlington, Ohio, that my love affair with libraries began. It continues to this day.
The Library of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, is the most breathtaking library I have yet seen – especially The Long Room and Book of Kells believed to date back to 800 AD – but The New York Public Library is only a half-stride behind.
Too, I love our local libraries and have a special fondness for The San Buenaventura Friends of the Library. In addition to supporting our city libraries and summer reading programs, this all-volunteer organization holds book sales that are ridiculous bargains.
To give you an idea, I recently bought nine books from these generous “Friends” – six near-new children’s books although, alas, not “Where The Wild Things Are”; two popular novels; and a 676-page hardcover “The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain” in wonderful condition – all for the grand sum of …
… five dollars! I felt guilty of larceny.
Since books and reading are food for the mind, let me share a family story that springs to mind when I think of the “Friends” book sales.
James Dallas Woodburn, my great grandfather, loved a good steak. Actually, good was not good enough; he insisted on a superb cut of beef. In his quest, after retiring from personally butchering livestock on his Ohio farm, J.D. would go into town to buy fresh beef from the meat market – which was next to the fruit and vegetable market, and bakery, there being no “supermarkets” in the 1930s.
Unlike other customers, my great-grandpa did not tell the butcher what he wanted. Rather, J.D. stepped behind the counter, tied on a white apron, and cut his own selections.
One Sunday during the Great Depression, in 1934 when my dad was eight, he accompanied his Grandpa J.D. to the meat market. J.D. proceeded to carve nearly seven pounds of deep-red, well-marbled – two key elements he always looked for – beefsteak at fifteen cents a pound.
That evening, J.D.’s wife, Amanda, pounded and breaded half-inch-thick slices of the fresh beefsteak before cooking them in a sizzling cast-iron skillet. The end result was a turkey platter piled so high that even after being passed around the supper table to six adults and two kids, the stack of country fried beefsteak seemed barely diminished.
Eying the surplus mound, my dad’s dad – Ansel – sarcastically needled his father: “Dad, do you think you bought enough meat?”
Replied J.D. with a wink: “Ansel, I wanted everybody to have plenty. So I got a dollar’s worth so we can all fill up!”
From the past to the present, beefsteak to books. Today, to cap off National Library Week, the Buenaventura Friends of the Library is holding a special “Bag o’Books Sale” at the Vons grocery at Telegraph and Victoria roads from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For just $3 you can stuff a bag with all genres.
In other words, make sure everyone in your family has plenty to read and fill up with three dollars’ worth!
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …
- Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com