As long as I can remember I’ve loved to read. I can remember reading Hardy Boy books way back when they were almost as big as me.
This was instilled and reinforced I’m sure by the travelling Bookmobile from the Newfoundland Public Libraries. I think there was a library in Clarenville when I was a boy, perhaps in the fire station building? I forget for sure, but most of my reading came from the bookmobile. These travelling libraries used to come to some rural towns back in those days, perhaps most, I really have no idea, but I remember it fondly.
Many a Hardy Boy adventure, and lesser known adventures such as Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, Tom Swift, and quite a collection of English kids books by Enid Blyton (anyone else read Five Find-Outers and Dog?) were inhaled voraciously by me.
I am also pretty sure I first read one of the first sci-fi fantasy books I ever read from here, that being A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.
I still love to read to this day, and will always remember the smell of books in that little mini-bus, the walls filled, a desk installed behind the driver so he could just spin a chair round and stamp the little pocket at the back.
Was an event and treat to see that bus come down over the hill and run out to wait for the doors to open.
If anyone has any pictures of it, or recollections to add, let me know!
Raised in outport Newfoundland in a town of 65 people, I pursued a post secondary diploma in Information Technology right out of High School.
I’ve always been a geek at heart, but yet I love the rural life I grew up with. Fishing, hunting, camping and the great outdoors are still loves of mine, even if I don’t pursue them as often as I once did. Sports were always a big part of our lives, and I played many (badly) and loved them all.
