FARM LIFE FROM A FARM WIFE: Second most favorite card opens knowledge

Tucked inside my billfold is my debit card; my must-have piece of plastic and most favorite card. I hyperventilate if I misplace it. Writing checks during numerous stops is an annoyance and cash is a hassle whereas plastic is handy.

One day, I was running errands and stopped at the Dollar Store. Quickly in and out, my next stop, Subway. Digging in my purse outside Subway my stomach fell. I couldn’t find my card. I had just used it at the Dollar Store. Kneeling outside my open car door, I looked in-between seats, under the seat, back digging through the contents of my purse yet again. With a sinking heart I realized I simply did not know where it was.

Going into Subway thankfully I had cash. Back in my car I fretted and frantically relooked everywhere, pockets, back seat (I had not gone into the back seat) and desperately started praying, “Father, you know where it is, where is it?” Very distinctly, I heard, “Go back to the Dollar Store.”

Unpleasantly thinking I’d have to humble myself before the clerk to see if she had found a card, I pulled into the very same spot in the parking lot and opening the door looked down. There, in all its lovely green glory, was my debit card. Oh sweet relief, thank you, Father.

So if my first most favorite piece of plastic is my debit card, what’s my second-most favorite? My library card. Oh, how I love the library. I walk in smiling, inhaling the scent of books; a delightful, anticipatory smell. I’m hooked.

When my kids were small, we’d visit the Shawano library often, hauling our book bag full of read books to dig out brand new finds, like treasures. The staff had always pulled suggested reading and cracking the books open, placed them invitingly on top of the shelves. We coordinated our visit to include story time. I remembered thinking it was like a mini Weidner Center, such a treat for us.

The first time we visited the library, my eldest son sat down just before the doors and started untying his shoes. “Honey! Oh honey, you don’t have to take off your shoes like at home. The library lets us walk on their carpeting right in our shoes!” I giggled and then got choked up at his pure, innocent sweetness.

Every Thursday night when their dad went bowling, we’d throw books on our pull-out couch, pile pillows behind our backs and, with bowls of dry Fruit Loops and packets of Juicy Juice, we’d read until little eyelids got heavy.

My eldest was my reader, very eager to cuddle with me. His most favorite, then 3 years old, was Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” We read that book so many times he had it memorized and sitting all by himself would turn the pages, saying in an authentically scary 3-year-old voice, “The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him ‘Wild thing!’ and Max said, ‘I’ll eat you up!’ so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

“That very night in Max’s room a forest grew and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around. When Max came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws!”

While my oldest was enthralled, books were not held in high esteem for my middle one. He’d much rather lay prone across the couch, chin resting on hands and watch an entire baseball game, pitch-by-pitch, instead of sitting with any book. Even when grandpa read to the boys, my oldest was spellbound while my middle one was out in left field. Probably quite literally, in his head.

These days, I rely on Infosoup with its simply endless book selections. I reserve online and when they arrive, I receive a text notice saying my book is ready with my personal code tucked inside. Going to the library’s self-check kiosk, I scan my card and then books. So easy.

In 2018, when I had written my children’s book, “Finding the Way Home,” both Shawano and Marion libraries were very accommodating, allowing me a story hour time to read my story aloud to those in attendance and hold a book sell/author signing. The Shawano library had coordinated it with June Dairy Month and served free ice cream after. Such kindness.

Almost every time I pop into the Shawano library, I pause a moment to chat with the friendly staff, acknowledging all their hard work and tell them how my second most favorite card is again being put to good use. I am forever grateful to the beautiful, kind souls that work at libraries, serving their community so well; the littles and the elders and everyone in between!

(“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.” Galatians 5:13)

Kay Reminger was born and raised on a dairy farm, and she married her high school sweetheart, who happened to farm for a living in Leopolis. Writing for quite a few years, she remains focused on the blessings of living the ups and downs of rural life from a farm wife’s perspective.