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.