I Remember... falling in love at the library. It was a wild, windy Autumn day, almost 25 years ago. I was 15. My father gave me a ride to the S. Oneida St. library, and I flew through the door, tingling with brisk air and with anticipation. Earlier that week, I'd read an exerpt in my high school literature textbook, from Thomas Wolfe's novel Look Homeward, Angel. The main character, Eugene, "felt the infinite depth and width of the golden world in the brief seductions of a thousand multiplex and mixed mysterious odors and sensations, weaving with a blinding interplay and aural explosions one into the other..." followed by a feast of descriptions so vivid, I swore I could smell them, feel them. I was seduced. Hungry for more, I went in search of the book in the adult department. There I was met with another feast - row upon row of novels, each one holding its own promise of excitement, romance, adventure, enlightenment, engagement of my adolescent senses. Up to that time, I had been content with the stories in the Youth room. But nothing had made me feel so alive as that exerpt, and now with the golden sunshine filtering through the thick glass block windows, casting a halo above the bookshelves, I saw the library in this new light and fell in love. I found my book and a few more, and checked them out at the adult desk with a sense of purpose, performing a rite of passage into this new world. Outside again, the wind in my hair, I looked for my father's car. I wondered if Dad would notice I'd changed since he'd seen me last, for I felt I had. I could feel myself growing up!

A Library Lover

I Remember... When Debbie Dadey came to the library and when you have all the reading programs.

Tosha Derks

I Remember... That the mosquitos haven't been that bad so far...

M. Hix

I Remember... Coming here with my mom when I was like 5 years old. Now I am 13! We would come and go in the train for 1 hour or 2. I also come with my babysitter, we had fun coming to see clowns or just read. I now love to read and would read all night if I could.

Lindsey Reynolds

I Remember... The first time I came here I was very young and I got some great books to read. I was always interested in Fiction books and they always had the books I wanted.

Leah White

I Remember... All the good memories reading here and all of the nice Librarians!

Mallory M.

I Remember... When I was little and couldn't read at all or not very well. Now I can read pretty well and I love reading books! It's a favorite hobby. My parents read to me a lot and that has helped me to love books. Doing the summer reading program for the last 2 years has helped me to enjoy books even more, even if I am getting older!

Tina T.

I Remember... When I was little my mom took me by the train with millions of animals.

I Remember... the reading programs and the prizes.

Andrea

I Remember... when I grew up in Wisconsin, I'd spent most of my free time at the library! Coming back to visit has reminded me about the awesome facility, adventures, and education that the Appleton Public Library has provided me. I will always be thankful for this quiet place and the train that always took me on a different trip each time I was here! thank you so much!!

Alison Bray

I Remember... the first time I came here. I was 8 or 9. I was so impressed that I checked out 10 books or more and tried to read them all by the due date. I still come here today and I volunteer for the S.L. Program. I love to read , even here!

Amy Beth Hubetts

I Remember... Reading is such a joy! I like to just curl up and read a book.

Molly Buss

I Remember... I enjoy reading. I think one of the best things is reading.

Molly Buss

I Remember... when I needed help with a report so I came to the library then it helped me with it!

Shoua Yang

I Remember... when I needed a book they helped me.

Sara Bellin

I Remember... looking at all the books and wishing I could have them all. Well, actually the only ones I really want.

Fanatic of libraries

I Remember... coming here and finding all the adult fiction books that I wanted to read.

Nick Carter Girl

I Remember... my first visit to an American library - well laid out , excellent selection of books and good facilities for children. Staff particularily helpful. JM Dawson There are lots of different books and I really like going on the internet. I managed to find a lot of information about the Gren Bay Packers. Jemma Dawson

Jm and Jemma Dawson U.K. visitors 1998

I Remember... A- Big aid Re: Military Insigna and addresses

Bill Swick

I Remember... changes. In high school, this didn't aways feel like a place to come and ask a question, but by the late 1970's the library was getting a higher profile. We became more of a reference library. The library grew as community expectations grew. I remember the effort to clean up the card cataolg and tweleve years later, the replacement of the cards with a computer catalog. I remember the referendum approving the new library and the hoursof committee work planning the new building. I remember the damp basement and holes in the floor of the old building and the move from theold library to the new library, wheeling loaded book carts down long ramps into moving trucks. I remember the last night in th eold library, when my friend Tom Wendlandt was the last patron. With the new library and the meeting roms, we became a community center. Business boomed. We became electronic, and the Library Foundation and a talented staff put us on the Internet. I Remember... so many things that they are a welter of impressions and memories... coming to the old library with my father almost every week as a young child, climbing the long stairway to the children's area... finally being old enough to get an adult card and being able to use the collections on the first floor without my father... summer afternoons riding my bike to my favorite destination, zipping through the alleys to the library... as a teenager, being thrown out with my friends for eating fried chicken in the library on a Friday night before going to the Den. I remember books. Book after book after book. During my childhood, I read almost every Science Fiction novel in the collection, starting with "Space Cat" and "Danny Dunn" and working my way through Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein. I learned most of the facts of life from books in the young adult collection - books like those we still see embarrassed young teenagers browsing through but seldom checking out. I remember years of amazing, disturbing or joyous discoveries on the new book shelf, or browsing the stacks. I Remember... mostly people: Magda Trinrud, Harold Adams, Dorothy Draheim, Howard Dickson, Ruth Birkhead, Jackie Nytes, Anna Costantino, Gordon Bebeau, Virginia McMahon, Karen Schmitt, Marion Huss, Amy Waite, Chuck DeVries, Ray Vignovich and so many more. I remember staff, Friends, Trustees, and Foundastion Board members. I remember performers: The Guthrie Theater playing to a full house, Stephen Ambrose making history come alive and Tom Pease bringing out our laughter and common humanity through songs. I remember patrons, from babies to seniors, street people and college professors. I remember debates, discussions,arguments, and hugs. The people have been hundreds, maybe thousands; their names and faces a blur. I remember especially and always, the collegues who left us too soon: Shirley Janssen and Harriet Tippet. I remember getting a library card for my daughter when she was less than a day old. My life has been half that of the library. In the past twenty years I've spent here, there have been births, marriages, divorces, and deaths, but the library has gone on...I still feel what I remember best: the joy of being part of a place, a profession and a community where people love learning and ideas so well

Terry Dawson

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