Walking through Providence, my eye caught the Early Bird Parking Special, $10, where two attendants were huddled inside staying out of the storm. The library event at the Rochambeau Branch is on tomorrow, 2 p.m. (Hope Street). The office may not be so visible in the morning.
We walked all over Providence today, watching the storm as it began to roll in. The beautiful old industrial and federal buildings looked especially grand in the snow. I remembered walking all over these streets as a kid, taking the bus in from the East Side, stopping at the Sheraton Biltmore for a coke, visiting Newberry’s to pick up supplies for my expanding tropical fish empire, and hanging around the cemetery on North Main Street.
I was hanging out in the entrance to a crypt, reading Batman comics, when I heard that Buddy Holly had been killed in a plance crash, and that moment is etched vividly in my consciousness. I am not into nostalgia, or too much looking back. But walking around the place did evoke a lot of memories and feelings, and they are washing over me. I’m happy to show the place to Maria, and happy also that Library Director Tom O’Donnell is opening the library up so that the people who want to come and feel comfortable driving to the Rochambeau Branch can do so. The event was canceled briefly, and so no books will be sold, which is okay by me. Gives me more time to talk.
The library tour has been nothing but enhanced by the very omnipresent winter raging around it. The tour started in Granville in -10 degree temperatures, and the library’s boiler was off, so people had to chatter through my talk until it belatedly came on. Nobody left. Our love for libraries is strong. Libraries are an integral part of the fabriceof American life, and I believe history will judge us by the way we cherished and protected our libraries during difficult times. Preserving them will cost a lot less than bailing out banks, insurance companies and automakers. And libraries do a lot more good.
Tonight, the remainder of the storm will blast in, and I expect things will be cleaned up by tomorrow night. Certainly, no one should come who has to drive a long way or feels unsafe or uncomfortable. We will have a good conversation no matter how many people turn out. The weathe has made the library tour even more exciting. We’ve had a full house everyplace, and the weather only makes us see how much we love the libraries that are part of the soul of our communities.
January 26, 2011- Maria and I got into Providence just as the big Northeaster did, and that was good timing. There is already a ton of snow on the ground, so we headed out for a two-hour walk, photoshoot and visit to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.
The city of Providence banned some on-street parking for tomorrow, as up to 12 inches of snow is expected to hit Providence to night, and briefly, my appearance Thursday was cancelled. Library director Tom O’Donnell said he wanted to hold it anyway, and was I game, even if books could no longer be sold at the talk. I said sure, that was not a problem for me. So the Rochambeau Community Library on Hope Street in Providence will be opened up at 6 p.m. (the snow is supposed to stop in the morning) and I am very excited to be returning the place where I was first encouraged to become a writer, and where I learned how important libraries are, and how important it is they be preserved, even in difficult times.
Tom O’Donnell is a library director after my own heart. Upstate, this is an annoyance. I love the idea of a small crowd post-storm in such a special place to me. A librarian there told me that my books would be on her shelves one day, and that was when I became a writer, and I can’t wait to see them tomorrow.
Obviously, people should not try and come if the roads aren’t clear or if they don’t feel comfortable. I am fine with a small crowd, and don’t need to sell books to be content to talk about my work. I will sign anything people bringing, including body parts. I loved walking around Providence with Maria and reconnecting with the statues, the industrial texture, and amazing reworking of the downtown riverfront, and the beautiful neighborhood around Brown University.
In the morning, I will tend to some personal business and at 7 p.m., I will be at the Rochambeau Branch of the Public Library. Maria too. To those of you who can make it, we’ll have another great conversation. Libraries are worth every bit of it.
Dodging McDonald’s again. Looking for muffins. Outrunning the storm, loving my Toyota. Reading the “the Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler
to Maria. Two hours from Providence.
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Location:Back on the Mass. Pike.
FM is the station cat at Robin Hood Radio, WUDD, Salisbury, Conn., the country’s smallest NPR station.
I am not only loving libraries but loving librarians, smart, focused, dedicated people. This may be the best and most meaningful book tour I’ve ever been on. We are heading to Providence, where a good sized Northeaster is going to meet us tonight. Tomorrow, I will return to my hometown library at 7 p.m,, and then go onto Massachusetts Friday and Saturday. I am going to meet some powerful memories, show Maria the place of my childhood, walk about Providence and meet some ghosts.
I am going to my parents graves to say goodbye, walking around Brown, which I haunted as a kid fantasizing about being a writer. Now I am a writer. And will confront a part of myself that I need to see and say goodbye too, not in drama but in peace and gratitude. Because it made me who I am, and I like who I am.
