HAMILTON LIBRARY

Across the Fence 

From The Hamilton Herald-News

By Arvord Abernethy 

We have been in the process for over a year in building a patio at the back of our house. We think we will be proud of it when it is finished; it is a little different from many you see. 

To get ideas for fixing it up, we have been going down to the Hamilton Library and getting Southern Living Magazine and others for ideas and suggestions. They have proven very helpful. 

Last Thursday morning I took some of the magazines back and happened to get in on the children’s story hour. Each Thursday morning at 10:30 pre-schoolers under the leadership of Vicki Nichols her helpers meet at the library and have a story telling hour. Once a month, a puppet show is given for the children. 

I slipped back to the room where the children meet and sat in on a very interestingly old story that Ann Cowan presented. Even though it was a cold and damp morning, there were 16 children seated on the floor around her and they were all eyes and ears. 

She was reading a story that is very true to life. This little boy was wanting his dad to teach him how to ride the bicycle. The dad always had just one more rule to teach him before letting his start riding. Sure enough the day made a mistake and ran off a cliff. It took the son to pull him back to safety, get his dad on the handle bars and ride him back home. 

Ann then led them in a song with motions about children riding on a bus, and it was real cute. Even though the children were two to four years old, you should have seen and heard them as they sand and carried the motions. 

A few years back the library opened up a new reading room in the back and this is where the children meet. The success has been so great in the use of the facility, work is now being done on another room further back. This will be the children’s room. This will give them a private room where they will not disturb anyone. They can also have little parties back there and refreshments can be served. This room also has an outside entrance for the children to use. 

I asked Mrs. Lydia Robinson, the librarian, how the library was funded and she said that both the city and the county had the library in their budgets. Ever so often the Herald-News lists the persons who have given memorials to the library. Right now some of the memorial money is being used in equipping the children’s room, but this fund is usually used in buying new books above the budgeted allowance. 

The magazine section of the library has been an interesting part to me lately. I couldn’t begin to list all the different magazines they have, but some of the most popular one are: Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, McCalls, Time and National Geographic. 

If you would like to travel over Texas in the comfort of your favorite Lazy Boy rocker, you should get the Texas Highway Magazine. The Texas Highway Department puts out a most interesting and colorful magazine of all the points of interest in the state. You will not only enjoy the magazine, but you will save a lot on gasoline and motel bills. 

Another popular section of the library is the paperback novel; book section. Right now they have 3,888 paperbacks catalogued, so you should find something that will exactly please you. 

Last year the library had a circulation of 18, 084 articles, so you see that it has been a very busy place. To save you the trouble, I figured out that that would come to nearly 90 books a day checked out. 

Instead of my trying to tell you about all the different type of books and things they have there, why don’t you just drop by there some day and browse around awhile. You are bound to find something interesting to read; and you will go away with a feeling of pride in the library we have. You will enjoy visiting with Mrs. Robinson, the librarian, and with Mrs. John Bailey, her assistant. You may even catch Mrs. Mattie Tate there. She spent so many years there, it is hard for her to get weaned away.

ACROSS THE FENCE