On the Road - Watonga Public Library

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Originally uploaded by Monty42.

This was a milestone! I just finished my 10th summer reading program here at the Watonga Public Library! I think that's a personal record for a recurring engagement - 10 years in a row! And I almost didn't recognize the building as I drove up; they've added a brand new program room!

I was speaking to one of the librarians here and she remembers my castle setpiece from 1995 when the theme was "Knights Alive in '95!" I traveled that summer with a huge cardboard castle and dragon which Lisa's aunt Delores painted for me. The mideaval theme will be back next summer, but ironically it was just this year that we repurposed the castle. We used it to decorate one whole wall of Evalyn's room! Ah, well, my days of fancy setpieces ended three years ago anyway - with Evalyn in our lives we no longer have room in the car or time in our day to mess with big backdrops.

Well back to the present. It was a fun program today as always. We didn't get to use the new room due to lack of air conditioning (next year!) so we crowded for the last time into the cozy corner back behind the stacks. I sang "Diving in the Deep Blue Sea," "Take Me to Your Library," "Read Team USA," "Lisa Lee Elizabeth" (by request), "The Frog Song," "Hanging Out With Heroes at the Library," and "Pop Up Sit Down."

This was the summer closer, so medals were awarded to kids who had read their quota, and tickets drawn for prizes. I added a CD to the prize pile in honor of my tenth visit here.

And then, as always, the kids got cookies and punch. Seems like every year in the past we've been outside in the oppressive heat, but it's rainy today, so we got to enjoy refreshments in the new program room. Very nice!

By the way, see that skinny black pole to my left in the photo? That's my new Bose personal amplification sound system. No more two big speakers up on poles! It's really cool.

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