The Autograph Book

Image courtesy of SWEET TEA

          In the summer before my senior year of high school I was invited to stay with a friend who lived in Cleveland, Tennessee, which is about an hour and a half away from my parents' house in Maryville, Tennessee, where I was living at the time.  My friend Dennis was about my age.  His father worked for the same company that my father worked for and we had gotten to know one another through various company functions.  He and his siblings had stayed at my family's house for a couple of weeks earlier that summer.  I guess my visit to his house was a sort of continuation of that visit.

           As it often is with young people who have much time on their hands during those long summer days in a small town, we were on a continual quest for something to do. One day we were at a shopping center and in the variety store I found a very inexpensive paper covered autograph book.  I'm not sure why I was so attracted to this book other than the fact that it was very cheap and I didn't have all that much spending money, but I bought it feeling that there was some sort of entertainment value to be derived from it.

          Since there were no celebrities to receive autographs from in Cleveland, Tennessee, I fell back on my practical joker side.  As a long time fan of Candid Camera, the television show where prank victims were caught by a hidden camera, I decided that it would be fun to just walk up to complete strangers and enthusiastically ask for an autograph.  My friend, who was just as much of a nerd as me, agreed that this would be jolly good fun and egged me on.

           At first I was hesitant.  Since I was rather shy back then, I was embarrassed about approaching strangers anyway.  The silliness of the idea drove me forward.  I started with other teenagers.  They giggled and readily complied.  Then I worked my way up to adults.  A handful suspiciously brushed me off, but most went along with my silliness and signed my book.  One older gentleman even playfully feigned great honor that I would be asking for his autograph.

          After a couple hours of autograph hounding, we tired of our little prank.  Asking strangers for autographs is something I never did after that day.  I kept the autograph book and I'm sure I still have it packed away somewhere.

           A few years later, when I was attending the University of Tennessee, I got another brilliant idea that didn't last very long, but I did think of it now and then during those years.  I decided that I was going to try to get to know every student and faculty member at the university--all twenty thousand plus of them.  I never got too far with that plan, especially since I lived off campus, but I did get to know some of the other students who commuted on the bus.

         I'll admit it was some weird thinking--autographs from strangers and trying to get to know thousands of people by name.   Perhaps it had something to do with small town thinking trying to break out into the big world.  Then again, what the heck is blogging all about?

        Are you good at approaching strangers?   What is your biggest fear when trying to meet new people?  Do you have an interesting or unusual story about trying to strike up friendships?

       

   

Lingering in the Library

         During my sojourn at the University of Tennessee, I seemed to primarily occupy myself with killing time while I figured out what I was going to do with my life.  I only knew that I wasn't interested in going into plastics and I sure didn't want to go to Viet Nam. 

          It was in the first years of the 1970s and during the reign of Richard Nixon that I lurked about the Knoxville campus of the University.  I was a shadow of a student who came to classes in the early morning and departed sometimes as late as 9 or 10 at night. 

         For most of those years I did not own a vehicle and commuted via bus the fifteen miles from Maryville, where I was still living with my parents.  The bus trip took about an hour departing from Midland Shopping Center and the bus returning to Maryville made hourly stops at the University.  This meant that sometimes I had to find something to do to fill that space of time until the next bus came.

         Also, there were those days when there were long periods of time between classes.  Whenever I had those blocks of open time, I might do any number of things.   One of the most common ways that I would fill up time voids would be to linger in the Undergraduate Library.

         As I was growing up I rarely went to the library--at least not that I can remember.  I suppose during elementary school our teacher would take us to the school library to pick out books for our book reports, but I don't really recall those visits.  When I was older, my mother or father would just let me buy books when I needed to make book reports.  I began amassing my own home library.  My memberships in the Doubleday Book Clubs also added greatly to my private library.

           However, with my free time at the university, I began exploring the large library which was across the street from the Humanities building, where I had most of my classes.  I was rarely looking for anything pertaining to classes because here again I was buying most of the books I needed for them. No, I was just looking.  I can spend hours in a bookstore.  I can spend even more time in a sizeable library.

          It has to with the range of available materials. The Undergraduate Library had books, magazines, and recordings that were contemporary and those that went back many years.  There was always a randomness to my library exploratory excursions,  not unlike the way I enrolled in classes.  For me it was often a matter of "Oh, that sounds interesting--I think I'll take that class", or "Oh, I think I'll look at this book (or whatever) just because I feel like it and I've got time to kill".

          My visits to the library were like an explorer in an undiscovered land.  In wonderment I would come upon things that were new to me and I would want to keep searching to see what else I could find.  It was all random, sure, but my mind works in pretty random ways sometimes.  I never graduated from the University of Tennessee-- I came mighty close, but no cigar. 

         Those random library excursions stand out in my memory just like my meanderings on mountain trails in the Great Smokies.  One experience was not necessarily better than the other, but the outcomes of both had a similarity in the process of experiential absorption of my surroundings.  There was a beauty to both places that inspired reverence and awe. The amazing scope of the vastness of God's creation cannot be duplicated by humans, but the essence of that creation is captured within the walls of libraries.

Here are some fine blogs where books hold a special place:

Books, Writing, and More, Oh My! -- Swimmer would feel right at home in a library.  She offers reviews, tips on writing, and, of course, more.

C C Chronicles -- Let's see-- the header on her blog has a picture of a huge library.  I think that says plenty.

Keeping Up With Klapper --Carmen Klapper loves books, but now and then she gets a bit Krazy too.

Mary McDonald Has the Write Stuff -- Mary doesn't always write about books, but she likes them.
 
Nashpredsfan's Blog -- She's from Nashville and posts book reviews and whatever else is on her mind.

Writing:  A Soul's Way of Breathing --Naomi's a writer who writes a lot about, you guessed it, writing.

Peruse these fine blogs and give them your rave review of how they are doing in Blogging From A to Z.