Cleaning up our old house in preparation to sell, I came across this overdue library book. Apparently I had checked it out before summer break of ’77 and obviously never returned it…Oops!
Last weekend was too busy to get this book back to Lynbrook and I got to thinking of the fine I might face so I did the math. Let’s see, 10 cents a week for 37 years comes to $192…Oops! Maybe I’ll sneak it back into the return box at my old high school under the cover of darkness after Ms. Greycar, the librarian, locks up. No, not worth the risk. I’m taking it home and rereading this book.
Later that day we took a break from clearing out dusty files and forty-five years of collective crap and buried treasures. Paul and Eddies Cupertino Inn is a pub dive that has remained unchanged since this valley was acres of prune orchards, not APPLE. And on the worn wooden paneled walls are thousands of $1 bills, littered and graffitied, tacked to them.
I’m tempted to slip this bill into my pocket and use it as a bookmark as I get reacquainted with my newly found overdue library book.
In 1977, I was a sophomore so I’m certain I was only doing research as a prelude to my senior year, the summer of ’79.