Citizen Who?

Gossip about small towns is that they are insular and can be unfriendly. Don't know aobut other small towns but Heringon is anything but. They welcomed me and my sisters and we were definitely strangers. This past week the three of us were astounded by the communities choice to homor the three of us as "Citizen of the Year'. I guess that makes each of us 1/3 of a citiczen. They did surprise us and my sisters noted that it was the first time that they had seen me speechless. I did manage a Thank You.

When they read the list of everything that my sisters and I are involved in in this town, even I was taken back. Joan especially has been so busy getting the community to support their efforts at recycling, that is it amazing that she gets much else done, but just her list alone is long. What they did not know, and thus did not menton, is that she has a young lad who lives with his grandparents around the corner from her, come and help her stomp on the cans and help her take things to the recycling center. He has even called at 7 a.m. to make sure he is going to be included. She is indoctrinating them young.

More Surprises

Yesterday my sisters were invited to write human interest pieces for the local newspaper. I find the prospect exciting. There is so much going on here in Herington, Kansas, and lots of times people just aren't informed so they miss the event and then are sorry. I'm hoping we can share some of our excitment about being in this community.

The Local Bowling Alley has had a men's and women's league for ages. This spring they started a mixed 9 Tap League. If any of you are ignorant about what this is, as I was, until a month ago, I'll explain. Mixed means that each team needs to have a representative of each gender on the team. Scoring is different. The bowler is given a strike if the first ball takes down 9 of the 10 pins. After than the scoring is the same. I joined this league and then wrenched my knee so I'm using a substitute. She's lots better than me so my team, WOMBATS, is looking good - getting better every week. I'm in the cheerleader, a new role for me.

Using Webinar

Webinar is useful and the archival part is extremely helpful, because what I miss I can have repeated.

Just listened to an archived Web presentation from December 18, 2009, about Kansas Libraries and Kansas taxes for 2009. Laura DeBaun was the host.

While Andy Coutis and Carl York did a good job, they were focusing on 'how to fill our the forms', which we are not supposed to help with. This means that it was only mildly useful. At least I might recognize some of the forms, but in truth, we cannot as Librarians give tax advice. This means that what we really need to know is where to send a person who needs help. While the attitude was that it would be the near indigent or the elderly who would need help, I disagree. I think it will be the person who has resisted learning about computers, no matter their income or intelligence level. People who in the past have been able to to take the forms and the instructions and do it themselves but who have no computer savy. This should be a very interesting event.

My Soap Box

As a library and book lover, I want these places to be there not just this year but for years to come. One of the ways to assure their continued existence is to have them so well used that people would object if they were to begin to disappear. Todo this we need to create 'new' patrons. One of the biggest resources are the youth and children of today who will become the readers of tomorrow. I would like all of us to remind any parents and grandparents of our acquaintance that they need to take their kids and grandkids to the library where the books, magazines, DVDs (and VHS tapes) are free as are the programs. Everyone loves to save money. In difficult economic times using the library is a good money saving measure.

The grandparent population has more more (and usually more money) than the parent group. We need to advertise the libraries programs for children at the Senior Fairs, retirement homes and retirement commnities and Senion Centers where grandparents abound. We need to remind our legislators, who are frequently old enough to have grandkids that the library's siren song should call them to share with their grandkids the joys of books. Maybe we could have either a kids' 'Take a Grandparent to the Library' Day or a grandparents' 'Take a Kid to Your Library' Day.

Everyone help me think about this.

Good Surprises

Small towns can surprise you -- like this past Monday when the Chamber of Commerce of this small town recognized my sisters and me by naming the 3 of us "Citizen of the Year" which totally blew us away. We have each just been doing our thing and spending our time making our world the best we can and the people of this town noticed. If any of them are reading this blog, I want to say thank you for having an ability to surprise.

23 Things Kansas

For a City Girl I can be pretty slow, especially when it comes to small town politics. Everyone knows everyone else, except that I did not know this. Fortunately I had a good experience. I asked a question of someone and discovered so much more content that what I requested because this person was 'informed' and willing to share. Living in a small town is sort of like belonging to an on-line community like Facebook. One word uttered and everyone knows.

Loft Living

One of the recent joys in my life is my new living space. I moved into a Loft in downtown Herington, Kansas. While I have long envisioned loft living, I never imagined it to be in a small town, but it is perfect. It is a recent conversion from storage for a hardware and appliance store. Two bedrooms, two bath and Lots of open space. Not for everyone, but definitely for me. I like having the view of what's happenin' around me.