Yeah, that just happened

Saturdays at the library are always a treasure. Here are some jewels from today:

An elderly woman called and wanted to put a specific book on hold. It was hard to hear her and she was definitely distracted. When I asked for her library card number she told me I had to hold on because she had to dig through her purse...which was difficult because she was driving. Yes, she was driving, talking on her cell phone, and going through her purse all at once. When she gave me her card number I saw that her birth date was from 1937. So she was 74, driving completely distracted, oh and did I mention it was pouring rain all day today and we had at least two tornado watch alerts?

I put a copy of the Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, on hold for a man, he asked me who the narrator was and asked, "It's not Mark Twain, is it?" Seriously? I laughed for a second until I realized he was serious and I had to turn it into a cough. Before walking away he said, "I don't know, sometimes the authors read their own books." Seriously.

Twenty minutes before closing a woman wanted me to help her find books for a research paper. Her topic was more suited for an academic library (why or why do college students not use their school libraries?!) but I actually found two books. She didn't have a library card so I gave her an application. When she handed it back I was a little disturbed by the bubbliness of her handwriting, almost as if a 14-year-old cheerleader had filled it out. She even dotted the two i's in her name with bubble hearts -- no lie! This might have been cute had she been a teenager or maybe even passable for someone in their 20's. She was 52.