Remembering......

the other day I was in B&N browsing around and I saw this little blank journal. It really caught my attention because of it's cover. I've tried to find a picture of it on the B&N website but I can't so I hope I can describe it so you can picture it. The whole cover looked like the back of a library book that we would have checked out from the library when we were kids. It had that card with the lines and then the dates were stamped onto it, all in the little boxes but never exactly on the lines. Do you know what I mean?

Seeing that journal got me to thinking about how simple things were back when I was younger.

I remember getting on my bike and taking a ride to the library. I always had a basket on my bike, perfect for my books. I still go to the branch that I used to go to when I was a little girl. It's a little different inside but I remember being able to sit on the little ledges that they had in front of the bookcases that were built into the wall. I remember fitting on those little ledges too. Those ledges are still there, but I don't fit as comfortably as I used to.

I loved reading Nancy Drew. I remember my parents buying me those books. I really wish we would have kept them but I'm pretty sure they were passed down to my cousins. I remember getting books by Judy Blume from the library. There were some that I would sneak in and my mother wouldn't know I got them. "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret" was one of those books. I wonder if that book is as popular now with young girls as it was back in the mid 70's? I'll have to ask my daughter. It probably pales in comparison next to books like Twilight and some of the other series that are out now. We used to sneak that book around. Nowadays, mothers and daughters are sharing copies of those books. I just can't picture my mother reading my Judy Blume books.

I remember I'd be dying to get my hands on the next Nancy Drew if I didn't have it in my collection at home. I'd have to go to the library and see if the one I wanted had been returned, hoping and praying the whole way there. Now, you just look online to see if your branch has it and if not, you can just have it sent there from another branch. Not as much anticipation, but at least you aren't disappointed as much as we were back then. And then there was the joy when you ran into the back room of the library, the children's section. One side of the room was for the Children and the other side was the Young Adult Readers. Nancy Drew was in the Young Adult with her own little section on the shelves. You could see that bright yellow beacon from the archway of the room. And in the good ole days, those books were arranged in numerical order. You didn't have to even know the title of the Nancy Drew you were looking for, just what number you were up to.

Those were the days!

I think I might just head up to B&N this weekend and grab that little journal with the library due date cover. I have no idea of what I'll use it for but that little book has brought back so many memories, I just have to have it.