Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

     I took the kids this past weekend to the book sale at the State Fairgrounds as it has become an annual outing for us. I don’t think that the two youngest ones are really that interested, but for my oldest and her Dad there is nothing better than wandering the stacks and stacks of books until we find ones that peak our interest and end up in our cart.

     She and I love to read. It probably is one of the few good traits she picked up from me, although I was a little worried that her first time behind the wheel of a car last Friday night would be scary if she was trying to read a book at the same time. Neither one of us is ever far from a book and we both enjoy reading much the same things, although she probably has a little more time to read and doesn’t have to spend twenty minutes searching for her “eyeballs” when she picks up a book and settles in.

     We brought home our treasures and poured through the box to see what each one of us had picked out, making mental notes of books that the other chose that we wanted to read as well. I could spend days, and probably an entire paycheck at the sale, so there is a stopping point for everyone, much like bidding at auctions when you just have to walk away. The only thing I passed up that I wished I would have put in the cart was an 1897 edition of the Letters of Thomas Jefferson.

     Even though there are people who are “experts” who tell us that books and newspapers, nearly all printed material are quickly growing obsolete and in the future there won’t even be books printed, I still love the feel of a book. From the way the cover draws me in, to the way the pages feel as they flip silently against my eyes allowing me to paint the story in my mind, books have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.

     I suppose Grandma was the one to blame for getting me hooked on reading, although my Mom would be a close second for spending dollar after dollar on Dr. Seuss books when I was a child. The first book I remember reading was a book Grandma had about a dog named TIP. TIP was a strange looking mutt and I don’t recollect who his owners were, but I do remember that they lived in the country as there weren’t any houses in any of the pictures in the book. The other thing I remembered was that TIP was a typical dog and had to be told constantly to do things…”TIP! NO TIP! NO!”. I suppose that made me understand TIP because he was like every dog I had ever been around.

     From the moment I finished telling TIP what to do and put that book aside for another one it has been a constant stream of words and pages since then. From the strange looks that I got in high school English free reading periods for picking the Bible as my selection to the piles of books that are scattered around the corners of my room, I’ve always found reading as a way to continue learning and to have the chance to sit and “be still” for a few moments.

     I suppose at some point I’ll have to switch over to one of those electronic devices that can hold and entire library in them, but for now I’ll stick to the print of the dog eared books long since forgotten that have brought me this far and will continue to comfort me throughout my life. My own attempt at novel writing has been an interesting experience to say the least and I’m still hopeful that someone will pick it up and like it enough to print it so that I can see a book written by my own hand.

    Until then, I’ll be here writing away and haunting the halls of old stacks of books and looking for those treasures that are hidden in between the covers.

See you next week…Remember, we’re all in this together.