I used to read three or four books at one time when I was a kid. And I used to have multiple books from the library and from my own library going at the same [time]. Sometimes got into trouble because I didn’t get up and move as fast as I was supposed to sometimes, and I didn’t get moving on my chores sometimes as fast as I was supposed to. And sometimes my father, who didn’t like to read much, couldn’t understand why I read some of the books I read over and over and over again, and I’ll get to that more later.
One summer, when I was about 13, I was supposed to do some house cleaning for my mother and I did not do it when I was supposed to, and she was very busy and she got very disgusted with me. And she threatened me that if I didn’t get my stuff done around the house, she would not take me to the library.
Well, we lived about a mile and a half from the library and it was a walk I took — a frequent, frequently, because it was next to my elementary school and I sometimes walked there when I was a kid. So, I thought, “Well, really doesn’t matter if she doesn’t want to take me, it’s summer, I can walk to the library.” So, I walked.
I did my chores, but I also walked to the library and my mother laughed at me when I came back. And she never really threatened me with that again because she knew if I really wanted to go to the library, I would just walk. And one of my really good friends was also a big reader, and if I wanted to go to the library, most of the time, one of us would go, we would go together. So, we also at the age of 13 had to get notes from our mothers, to leave at the library, saying that we were able to read certain things.
The thing I really wanted to read at 13 was Gone with the Wind. It had just come out at the movie theater for the first time in many, many years. And my mother had taken both me and my friend to see it. And we loved it and it was great and I wanted to read the book. And my mother had no problem with me reading the book, but the librarian didn’t think I was old enough. And so I had to have a note at the library, and I had to have a note at the library for the rest of the time I lived there until I turned 18. And when I turned 18, I went in to the librarian, who was sometimes very kind and sometimes very abrupt, and I said to her, “I’m 18 now and I want my note back and I want to rip it up.” And she laughed at me and she said, “You can.” So, I did.