Books
#6 in the series, "A Legacy of Stories." Written by my dad, Forest Jordan
(Read about A Legacy of Stories, here.)
“Here is a book you might like,” said Mrs. Lynch as she laid it on the table beside me.
I managed a “thank you” but didn’t look up because my eyes were teary. I was reading Running Eagle by Schultz. Someone in the tribe, I think now it must have been the hero of the story, had just fallen off his horse and was trampled by stampeding bison. I was taking it hard. It was the saddest story I had ever read. Well, Smoky: The Story of a Cow Horse was sad as well, but I didn’t tear up over it.
I am sentimental; I can’t help it. I get watery in movies. It’s so unmanly. Lou sits next to me in the show, dry-eyed. I try not to let her or anyone else see me for awhile.
Anyway, the book Mrs. Lynch left beside me was The Glorious Adventure by Richard Halliburton. I was soon hooked. Wow, here was a guy who swam the Hellespont and climbed Mount Olympus. He had great adventures all over the world. Mrs. Lynch sure knew a good book or two.
As you must have guessed, Mrs. Lynch was the town librarian. She was short and matronly. Rimless glasses perched on her nose with no visible means of support. A slender black cord attached to her glasses and dress averted disaster. The pince-nez lent an air of dignity and suspense to her appearance. She spoke just above a whisper and this demanded your attention although I never heard a harsh word from her. I spent many afternoons at the big reading table when the weather was bad. I liked her a lot.
The library was a gift to the town by Andrew Carnegie. It was a small, one-story building of limestone with classical pretensions. Doric columns bravely guarded the front door. Inside it was almost cozy. I liked to browse the stacks, leafing through picture books and the encyclopedia. Mrs. Lynch didn’t seem to mind.
The Dowagiac District Library as it exists today. After a brutal remodel of the facade in the early 1970s, it was decided to restore it to its original 1903 look. This is pretty much how my dad would have seen it when he was young. I wish he was around to share this with him. He would be happy to see it’s back to its original, handsome architecture.
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“I have a book,” I told her.
“What is it,” she asked.
“Tom Sawyer ,’’ I told her. “I read it twice.”
“That is a good book,” she said. “Perhaps you would like to read more about him.” Then she went to a shelf and handed me Huckleberry Finn. That was a good adventure yarn. Much later I learned that, as a literary classic, it could be read and enjoyed on two levels.
I didn’t tell Mrs. Lynch, but beside Tom Sawyer I did have a library of my very own in a corner of my bedroom. It had two shelves. It was an orange crate. It stood on end and held my collection of Big Little Books. These were illustrated yarns such as Dick Tracy Goes West and The Green Hornet in Peril. The books were maybe five inches by four inches and about two inches thick. You bought them at the Woolworth for ten cents. ( F.W. Woolworth -- better known as the “five and dime” -- was a variety store that sold many of the necessities of life as well as the less expensive luxuries. It was a fascinating place, and America is the poorer for its passing.) Back to the Big Little Books: They followed the lurid dime novel as part of our subculture and preceded comic books.
I treasured my library and I hung a piece of cloth over the front of my bookcase to keep the dust out. Of course I traded books with some of the neighbor kids, but I did not lend out books. Too precious.
Big Little Books, of course were easy to read and copiously illustrated, but how many times can you read the same book? Reading them eventually becomes like eating popcorn – good for the short term but you soon hunger for something else. That means back to the town library for better nutrition. After all, those little books were a phase. I bet collectors fight over them nowadays.
Reading has never been a mere phase for me. I read two or three books at a time, scattered about the house, waiting to be picked up at odd moments. Also, I subscribe to too many magazines as well as two newspapers. There is never enough time to read everything I might want to.
Both our sons can read well, but don’t. Well, the eldest, Philip, still reads, but its technical manuals, ugh. He grew up doing that. He is a master programmer at a company in Orange County. I’ve tried to tell both they are missing much in life, but computers hold their attention.
I like to sit down in the evening, turn on good music and take up a book. It’s been a long time since I had to stop and blow my nose while reading, but if I did, Mrs. Lynch would understand.
Forest Jordan
Feb. 19, 2001
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A little more on the Dowagiac District Library:
The Dowagiac District Library, located at 211 Commercial Street, has been a cornerstone of the community since 1904 when it opened with funding from a $12,500 Andrew Carnegie grant. The original brick-and-stone Carnegie building served generations of readers and underwent a major change in 1973 when a modern enclosed entry—nicknamed “the hamster tube”—was added to the front. After years of saving and planning, voters approved a $7.4 million bond in 2018 to expand and restore the library. Construction between 2020 and 2021 removed the 1970s addition, rebuilt the grand Carnegie entrance, and added a large rear expansion with modern amenities, preserving the building’s historic character while transforming it into a spacious, up-to-date resource for the Dowagiac community.