Jean McPheeters is the president of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce. She has served as a member of the boards of directors of Tompkins County Public Library Foundation and Tompkins Cortland Community College and she currently is a member of the boards of Tompkins County Area Development, the Ithaca Downtown Partnership and United Way of Tompkins County. With her husband, Daniel, she lives in a log home they built in the Town of Caroline.
Location is everything. I learned this in 1961 when I realized that my home was located midway between two branches of the Brooklyn Public Library. Each was a little less than a mile away and, in the summer of the year I turned ten, my mother allowed me to walk that far by myself and spend time at the library. The branch on 47th Street and 4th Avenue was an old brownstone building with stained glass windows, dark furniture and many small rooms. It was enchanting. The branch on 77th street was brand new. The glass walls and blonde furniture were bright and shining—I hadn’t been in many new buildings and I loved chance to sit inside and feel the sun streaming through the tall windows.
The best thing was that I could borrow books from both libraries, which allowed me to borrow twice as many books than I could from just one. I was in heaven.
Edward Eager was my favorite author that year. I read and reread “Half Magic,” “The Time Garden,” and “Magic or Not?” as well as his other four novels. All involved children who find themselves in a magical world confronting and solving problems without too much interference from adults. I also read the entire Arthur Ransome series starting with “Swallows and Amazons.” Written in the 1930s, these books showed me an entirely different world from my own. They were set in the English Lake District and the children in the family sailed boats, camped alone on islands, and had fabulous adventures. This series also introduced me to the delight of reading the entire works of a particular author. I got caught up in the hunt for a particular book because of my overwhelming desire to read the books in the order they were published. The librarian explained that I could get books from other libraries through interlibrary lending so that I could complete my quest. I was totally hooked on libraries and librarians.
My sisters had taught me to read when I was three years old. My father had been very ill when I was two and had to spend his days and nights in a hospital bed in our living room. I remember being able to run back and forth under the bed because it was so high. To keep me quiet and out of everyone’s hair, my sisters took turns reading to me and feeding me bananas. By the time I was three I was adept at both reading and eating.
I learned that reading enabled me to go outside of myself and find a larger world. I could be in my living room and in the English lake country at the same time. I could experience whole different countries. Science fiction introduced me to entirely new universes. My mother, my teachers, and, now, my husband have complained that it sometimes takes quite a long time to break through the walls of the universe in which I’m immersed and bring me to the realization that someone is talking to me.
In the second grade my teacher, Sr. Mary Wilfred, appointed me class librarian and entrusted me with a collection of about 100 books. I loved signing the books in and out for my classmates and learned the thrill of putting together the right books and the right people. I still love selecting books as gifts or finding the book that will offer comfort, inspiration or hope to a friend.
Over the years my sisters have taught me a lot and given me much more, but their greatest gifts were the hours of reading aloud to me, reading and rereading the same books, and allowing me to “read” my version to them. Thanks Pat and Betsy. I love you.
Family Reading Partnership
Ithaca, New York
Phone: 607-277-8602
Email: office@familyreading.org
