Not So Old School After All

I went to a public library today for the first time in a long time. The four years I lived in Brisbane, I never set foot in such an institution and yet I am drawn to the tiny room that is the Port Hedland library. I was feeling very nostalgic about it. It kind of reminds me of the casino public library where I researched many an assignment back in the golden days before I felt the soul destroying crush that is institutionalised learning (took me 7 years of primary, 6 of secondary and 8 years of tertiary to come to such a conclusion). Back in the day, when I was trying on the teenage rebel outfit for size, I hung out at the library when I wagged school. Totally Bad Ass. This library has the same feel. A dozen or so shelves of reference books, decades old and probably then out of date. Rows and rows of Wilbur Smith, Jeffery Archer, Patricia Cornwall and Agatha Christie, well thumbed, tea coloured pages read by so many a bored miner's wife, possibly twice. And a shiny newfangled wizzbox in the corner offering all of the infinite possibilities that the world wide web has to offer, parcelled out in 30 minute bookings. Ah, small town public libraries. Odd thing is that I found exactly what I was looking for (neither Patricia Cornwall or Wilbur Smith). Odd thing is that I enjoyed the experience so much I was grinning like a mad thing when I got back into the car. Odd thing (no, I'd say more amusing than odd) is the librarian, on seeing I was borrowing a book on tape asked me if I knew how to use a cassette. Never, never ever in my whole life have I been asked such a question. Bless. I've never really thought of the CD generation before, and despite the large carton of cassette tapes in my cupboard, I guess I am firmly one of them. But do I really look so young as someone who doesn't know about tapes? I wonder if there are kids out there who have all of their music digital and know naught of CDs?