Public Library Run

Weather: Cloudy with Light Rain/Drizzle, 44°F (Real Feel 35°F), Wind SSW @ 9 mph w/gusts up to 13 mph at 8:15 a.m.
Route: 7.2 mile route from Park Avenue neighborhood to Brighton, then north on Winton Rd., west on Atlantic Ave. until turning south on Culver Rd.

It was a "nice" morning to wear shorts for a second consecutive run. Yes, it is forecast to snow in the next few days, but there are few things worse than running in wet tights. Since my days as a high school runner, the cold has made my legs feel "better". Today's moderately paced run was planned to take me past three local public libraries I have frequented throughout my life in Rochester. While each has been a "go to" for periods of time, I do find myself periodically returning to each depending on what title I am seeking out and it's availability there. Once again, no "new" grounds was covered, but with a slightly more targeted point-to-point focus some familiar things were seen through a slightly different lens. As often happens, the nostalgia begins to flow as I pass by familiar streets...

If you live some place long enough, you collect anecdotes or stories about the buildings. And the buildings become friends. I have had the same library card for almost thirty years now (I've avoided updating the physical "card"), and along with frequent late fines, I've collected quite a few experiences in our Monroe County Library System, a few of which I'll drop here.

Winton Branch located at corner of  North Winton Road and
Atlantic Avenue.(4/9/20)

My mother was always a frequenter of public libraries when my brother and I were little, and consequently so am I. Most of my memories from childhood revolved around visits to the Winton Branch of the Monroe County Library System to borrow books about horror movie special effects, Robin Hood, and that holy grail of my childhood borrows, How to Make Comics the Marvel Way. We could not afford new books of our own, so we thought of this entire library as ours, which I think is the purpose. The older my brother and I got, frequently many summer days would be spent walking to the library on Wednesdays for "Movie Day" which consisted of 4 or 5 neighborhood kids watching short films on a reel-to-reel projector. It was magic.

Monroe Branch located at 809 Monroe Avenue. (4/9/20)

Literally a quarter mile from our home, this is the library I go to most often now because of its proximity. It is an older, smaller library, but, as is the case with all of this establishments, I find the selection to be outstanding. The Monroe Branch carries a wide array of shows and movies, many of which are not often on "free" television. The summer Anne and I moved into our home, we borrowed all five seasons of HBO's Six Feet Under (excellent!).

Brighton Memorial Library on Elmwood Avenue. (4/9/20)

The one "suburban" branch passed this morning.The town of Brighton borders the south eastern part of Rochester and as a result our family has been involved in a number of different activities there. From youth baseball, soccer, Farmer's Markets and the like, we have dabbled quite a bit with our suburban neighbor. The library is lovely, with one of the first wide selections of graphic novels I was aware of. Like those others mentioned here, Brighton also has computer terminals with internet access available to the public. At different points in my life I have found the need to use the internet at the public library, and it was here that I "famously" (meaning, I've shared the anecdote with classes in the past) sat at the computer next to one patron who was petting an animated gif of a kitty. Meow!

If this morning's run has done anything, it has caused me to look even more forward to the normalcy that will return when our public libraries re-open. They are such a tremendous resource for communities--which is probably why it should be a while before they open up... each of these is usually chock full of patrons reading, researching, browsing in close proximity to one another.