COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – A library that mattered

When I consider how many books are available to us, both from our own bookshelves, as well as those that we borrow from our local public library, I am truly grateful. The fact that I am able to read is not to be taken for granted either. I have never experienced a physical inability to read due to visual impairment that could not be remedied. It’s very easy to take such things for granted. I have known friends and acquaintances for whom visual impairment, and indeed blindness were a reality, and acknowledge that I should always be grateful for the gifts I have received.

The Rosengard School where I began my formal education, had a library. I recall that the solid wooden bookcase was located in the corner on the left side of the entry into the classroom. The collection of books for this library was not very extensive, but it was a good beginning. A few new books were added to our library at the beginning of every school year as well.

In addition to the library we also had textbooks for the various subjects for each of the eight grades at our school. The lessons gleaned from these books helped to broaden our horizons far beyond the realities of our farming community. This, in a real sense, added to our library collection.

My recollection of books available to us in that school library so many years ago elicits for me a sense of gratitude for many reasons. Chief of these reasons is the fact that our community had a school that, in addition to following the curriculum, also encouraged reading for the sheer pleasure of it. Some seven decades later and counting, I can still recall the titles of some of the books on our library shelves. Although I may not be able to call to mind too many details of most of these books, be it Adrift in the Stratosphere or The Boxcar Children or quite possibly one of the Twin books, perhaps The Eskimo Twins or The American Twins of the Revolution, they nevertheless linger in my memory. In a real sense, those books must surely have laid some of the groundwork for my delight in reading to this day.

There were other books that were introduced to us at the Rosengard School by our teachers. One of our teachers introduced us to the book Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Every afternoon, she read to us from this book for a period of perhaps fifteen minutes. Who could not be drawn into the adventures of the Wilder family as they traversed the United States prairies in a covered wagon until they reached the desired location near Plum Creek in Kansas. And surely nobody could forget about the adventures of Laura, the feisty, middle daughter of the Wilder family.

Henry E. Toews who taught at Rosengard during the 1950s read to us from the Sugar Creek Gang books, written by Paul Hutchens. The setting is in Indiana, and the series focuses on the adventures of seven young boys. It warms my heart to reflect on how much I enjoyed those readings, which invariably ended at a high point in the story, whetting our appetite for what would occur during the next reading.

When our children were quite young, we made a point of visiting the Winnipeg public library bookmobile located weekly on the grounds of the St Emile School on St Anne’s Road., in St Vital. It was always a welcoming place, and when the Louis Riel Library opened some years later in 1989, that welcoming spirit continued for us as if no one had missed a beat.

Over the years I have read countless books to our children and grandchildren, as well as reading for children in the public school setting. Fortunately for me, my husband patiently indulges me whenever I read something that to my mind must be shared. He invariably, kindly agrees that it was indeed an item that he too deemed noteworthy.