Support your local library

   Scott Loftis

Editor’s Note: This column originally was published July 19, 2023. I’m sharing it again today in honor of National Friends of the Library Week. If you can, please consider supporting plans for a new library in Berryville.

Istarted kindergarten a few weeks before my fifth birthday. I wasn’t an immediate academic success.

In fact, my teacher told my mother that she believed I might be developmentally delayed — a contention I’m sure that some of you reading this column might not find unreasonable. My mother disagreed, vehemently. As it turned out, I’d been absent from school the day some fundamental was taught. Not understanding that fundamental kept me from progressing as quickly as my classmates. Once Mom figured out what was going on, I caught up.

I did a little better than catch up, actually. Within a couple of years, I was one of the top students in my class. There were a few reasons for that. One, I was naturally blessed with my mother’s intelligence. I say that not because I deserve any credit for it, any more than I deserve any blame for being born with multiple cowlicks and a lack of any mechanical aptitude whatsoever. Those are just genetic facts of life for me. Second, my mom took the time to work with me outside of school. Third, we moved to a new home and a new school about the time I started first grade and the teachers in that school taught me to read. I learned using the phonics method, which had fallen out of favor for a while in the mid-20th century and was just beginning a comeback about the time I hit grade school. Those same teachers taught me to explore my natural curiosity and instilled in me a love of learning that has never left me.

I was that weird kid who read the encyclopedia for pleasure in the third and fourth grades, who could name all of the U.S. presidents — including their middle names — by fifth grade. I can still do that today, although it takes me a bit longer and oddly I have more difficulty with the most recent ones, those following Reagan. I learned so much about things my classmates were oblivious to. Yeah, I was a book nerd, but I knew things.

And I absolutely loved going to the public library, especially in the summer when there was no access to the school library. I also loved sports, especially baseball. I recall checking out book after book written by an author named Joe Archibald. He wrote fiction books about sports. Looking back, maybe they weren’t especially well-written after all — filled with the kind of jargon that years later I would learn to instantly delete or modify as a copy editor in the sports department of the statewide newspaper.

Back then, though, I soaked it all up like a sponge, just like I did the stats on the back of the baseball cards I collected like a fanatic, sometimes spending my lunch money on a pack of cards rather than a meal — until Mom found out and put a quick stop to that.

Later, I would visit the school library every day to read the newspaper, especially the sports section. And somehow I got the idea that what I really wanted to do was become a beat writer for a major league baseball team.

Of course, that dream never became a reality for me. But I did become a sportswriter and later a news reporter and editor. I still cover sports for this newspaper and it’s one of the more enjoyable parts of my job.

More importantly, I found my calling in life and I’ve been able to make a semi-decent living at something I love, all because of my mom, some dedicated teachers and a public library.

I tell you this whole story so that I can tell you two things: First, encourage your children and grandchildren to read. It will expose them to ideas and opportunities they otherwise might never imagine. And second, support your local library.

Of course, the Berryville public library is in the middle of a capital campaign to raise money for a sorely needed new building. The new building would not only serve readers of all ages but also would provide many other services to the community, including internet access for those who might not otherwise have it. I can’t think of any better investment in the future of our community than to send a few spare dollars the library’s way.

I’m sure the library would appreciate it, and so would the next generation of book nerds.

••• Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of the Carroll County News. His email address is SLoftis@CarrollCoNews. com.