The Rock Creek Library is nearly complete

During a meeting of our cabin owners association last fall it was suggested that one of those little free libraries would be a good addition to the community.

A board member immediately spoke up and asked if anyone actually read books anymore?

It was a telling question. Books are apparently passé to a growing number of folks in this country who often equate book learnin’ to liberal thinkin’ and we don’t want none of that.

But after a bit of discussion it was decided that a free library might not be a bad idea after all.

I volunteered to build it. It was the least that I could do. My wife is the author of more than 100 books, and for 20 years I made a living reading and writing.

I can also build stuff, a skill that carries more weight these days than my prose.

Originally planning to build the library during the winter, I put it off until spring, then scrambled to get it done.

Little more than a dressed-up plywood box with a door, the library is now complete. All that is left is to sink a 6x6 post in the ground and attach the box to it.

Lettering on the door identifies it as the Rock Creek Library. The two different fonts I drew freehand and cut out of a piece of cardboard for a stencil identify the builder as a former newspaperman.

Barb and I picked out a wide selection of books to fill the shelves, some of hers, some Westerns, some nonfiction, some humor. We have lots of books to share.

I had grabbed a couple out of a box in the shop that had never made it into the house just to see how they would fit, and discovered one was a book of poems that had belonged to my mother. She had written her name on the inside cover with the date 1941. There are notes in the margins written in Mom’s neat, distinctive hand.

The book may have been for a class she was taking when she was in college, but I also have a Bible of hers with similar notes in the margins. It was just something she did.

Hopefully the little library will get some use at the lake this summer. I’d hate to find out no one does actually read books anymore. That would be a sad day indeed.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]