When I was about six years old, around the year 1970, I made my first trip to the library. My great aunt Rose took all five of us Flynn kids to the library in an effort to broaden our minds but most likely just to give our poor mother a break. I’m sure she could see the anguish on my mom’s face after her having five kids in five years and having to raise them.
My great aunt Rose lived with my great aunt Mary and I don’t believe she ever had children so she was extremely happy. I remember she drove a really nice Cadillac that had power windows. All cars in 1970 were required by law to be over 50 feet long so there was ample room in the back seat for us five kids. As mentioned before the car had power windows so within seconds my brother Pat had closed the back window in an effort to catch my head in it. Now this normally would have been a dangerous thing to do but since my diet consisted of no milk and no vegetables my neck bones were so pliable that my neck just kind of collapsed in between the window and the door trim and my head just dangled on the outside of the window. My parents were still outside talking to Aunt Rose before we left and my dad screamed at Pat to open the window back up. Now I don’t think dad was worried about my neck. He just didn’t want us doing anything that might embarrass them or my Aunt Rose. Aunt Rose got into the car and drove us to the library.
We arrived at the library and after going though the main entrance we took a turn to the left and headed down some stairs to the basement where they kept the children’s books. I still remember how much those stairs creaked even when a six year old boy who probably weighed 35 pounds stepped on them. Aunt Rose was holding my hand and took me over to some books with a lot of pictures in them as I’m sure she thought there was no way I could read. She abruptly left me though as she had to go over and stop Tom and Pat from making fun of the books Lori was looking through. When she got back to me I had taken most of the books off of the shelves and sorted them by size into stacks before pushing them over. Eventually she got us all a book and we headed to the main desk.
Even though I’m sure my Aunt Rose knew it was a colossal waste she went ahead and got each of us a library card. I’d wager Pat and I probably had lost ours before even leaving the library that day. We hopped back in the car and headed for home. Mom and dad were smiling as we pulled up to the house until dad saw that my head was dangling on the outside of the window again and he started screaming at Pat.
I don’t remember Aunt Rose ever taking us back again. I’m sure she went back again though. Probably to pay the late fees or to replace the books.
Stuff that Probably Happened 