At the Library
By HarrietteFaulkner
26 September 2007
So I'm sitting in the public library and I'm thinking "Has something changed?" I know I haven't been in the library in a long time. I've been frequenting coffee shops and bookstores with coffee shops. I like being able to have coffee and perhaps a scone or a slice of cake while I write in my laptop, read some book, or thumb through a magazine that I don't have to buy. But today, I'm in the library. I just decided to stop for an hour or two while I wait to go teach my Thursday night class at church.
I seem to remember that one had to be quiet in the public library. I have vivid memories of the Enoch Pratt Free Library on North Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland and the librarian always, without fail, had a whole batch of freshly baked "ssshhhhhhhs" for me and my little brother. I guess all that's changed. Obviously there are no more rules about being quiet. Let me share the potpourri of noises...loud noises that I'm hearing right now in the library.
The librarian's high heels, walking back and forth on the stone floor, which sound is like "clap, cluck, clap, cluck, clap, cluck."
The ringing cell phone. Several different little ditties, including the Warner Brothers cartoon theme, "What's Up, Doc?"
A lady's voice as she teaches some gentleman who has obviously had a stroke and has lost his ability to speak without the use of one of those "voice boxes". You know the one that uses vibration to make the sounds. She's asking him to say the days of the week right now.
The man with the "voice box", his voice sounds like a regular old guy saying things through the whirling blades of an old fashioned fan.
Oh...there's someone else's cell phone. That's a regular ring.
The tennis ball that some kid is bouncing somewhere in this big cavernous room...it echoes. Bouncing tennis balls have a particularly, identifiable sound. Only you usually hear it outdoors.
Now the voice-box man is repeating the sentence, "I like to eat popcorn."
"Gooood. Gooood," the lady tells him loudly. Perhaps he is also deaf.
Someone's talking on a cell phone now. They're talking loud because the person on the other end must be in a tunnel.
Hmmm. Sounds like someone has their cell phone on speaker. That's probably so they can continue to work uninterrupted.
Here's a young man walking by with headphones. Why is he wearing headphones? I'm concerned for him. The music is so loud I can hear it. He'll be totally deaf in a year if he keeps this up. He's humming too.
That librarian does a lot of walking. I suppose that's normal for a librarian. I wonder why she wouldn't be wearing more sensible shoes.
Uh-oh. My watch just beeped. Time for me to pack up my things and leave. I love that little two-toned sound my watch makes.
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