The Halloween Parade

One of the fun things about working in a public library is being on duty during the Halloween season. This is one of the few times in the year when spillover from the Children’s library is allowed to encroach upon the dignity of the Reference room. You are trying to explain to a patron why he needs a book on Windows XP not a book on Dell computers. “It’s the software that matters not the brand of the computer”. Suddenly the door springs open and there are tambourines and bells and a hundred kids in costumes with a few adoring parents and amateur photographers.

The patron who has taken an hour to find the price of General Electric on March 4, 1973 finally has found the stock price. He gets out his pen and suddenly loses his train of thought. The Halloween parade! They are marching through and the atmosphere of the entire library changes for ten minutes. You can’t hear yourself on the phone. You can’t get at the photocopy machine. There are witches and goblins and Harry Potter imitations blocking the aisle.

Some of the costumes I can’t recognize. All the years I have wasted listening to public radio on Saturday morning. Had I been watching television instead I would know who these kids are trying to be.

A woman I know gave me a loaf of pumkin bread that she baked after reading the blog on the interns. Thanks and don't be shy about writing comments!