My father’s parents died when he and his siblings were still little children. An older sister of his mother took him in and raised him. This aunt married an older American expatriate, Mr. Herman. He was a successful businessman, owning almost half of the city south of Manila, and also owned the first radio station in the country. However, by the time the second world war was over, that wealth was reduced to one or two large mansions and later just the large family home that was situated beside the municipal cemetery.
I have a vague recollection of that house and the only thing I remember vividly was the library on the second floor. In that room, there were shelves and shelves of books, thick tomes with gilded edges and hand stitched cloth bindings that gathered dusts and were mostly unread. Mr. Herman’s eight children, except for the oldest, had no interest in reading. Intelligent and smart children they were, but mostly without any interest in the books.
My mother used to tell me a story that whenever we would go there on Sunday afternoons, the old man, seeing us walking down the street, would yell at the maids to unlock the library and clean the floor. “The smart snots are coming!” he would yell. He was always amused that my brother and myself going straight to that library and actually read. It was in that library that I first read the Encyclopaedia Britannica, as they always had the first edition whenever new ones came out. My brother and I knew not to eat in that room, or not to bring the books down to eat.
I loved being in that room, with the windows open and I could see the sky and the trees with their leaves and branches swaying in the afternoon breeze. In that room, I can dream and go to anywhere I wanted as long as I had one of the books in my hand. My brother and I especially loved two hardbound books with all the fairy tales and children stories written in proper ‘adult’ sentences. We would read all the other books, but those two books, one with a gray cover and the other in orange, were like dessert after having a big meal. When Mr. Herman died he left the books to my father for us. It was the first book we ever owned, and we knew the page numbers of all the stories. When we were “grounded” or made to sit in the corner, those books made the hours go by pleasantly.
When the Herman children migrated to the US, they left some of the more important textbooks for my brother to use as he was then starting high school. The eldest daughter particularly loved my mother and kept in touch with us. When in 2003 my sister and I went to San Diego to visit her, she had a small collection of rare and old books in her den. She cried that morning when she found my sister and me lying on our stomachs on the wooden floor, our chins resting on our hands and before us we each had an old edition of Britannica from their old library. “Oh, my goodness!” I heard her say to her husband, “that’s how they always were when they came to visit us in that big house!” Of course the only difference was that it was a lot more difficult to get up as I was already 50 by then. Sadly, she passed away a year after that visit.
In grew up in a very small Souterhn town... Our library was in an old Cicil War or maybe post civil war house... I love that I grew up when there was still quirky stuff like that... Everything is so generic and newly constructed now. Anyway the kids room was on the left and adults in the right. There was a gorgeous staircase but it always said no admittance... The check out desk was in the foyer ... The floors creaked and everything smelled like a combination of new books and old dust. I remember how excited I was when I was about 11 or 12 and mom would let me go to the adult side... They built a concrete and glass library somewhere around 1980 -1982 I guess... Sigh.
Books are my bestest friends. They make me go places and be the lead star in whatever I am reading. I often suffer from separation anxiety whenever I finish one and the ending is not quite what I expected. =) My latest friday reads is a John Grisham classic.
I was raised in a small Irish village. The library van came once a fortnight and we could take out two books each. They never lasted until the next visit. We got comics every week to fill some of the gaps, and school also had books but nothing was ever enough. All I ever wanted for birthdays and Christmas were books. . Now I buy books, take them out of the library, read them on my iPad and am in a book group. I still read avidly, preferring it to watching T V
Love your stories......you have me so hooked to your family history!! :-)))
My brother and I were "smart snots", too.... my parents took us with them to all family visits as babysitters were unheard of and my grandparents had passed away, and we both sat quietly in a corner or under a table with books spread out in front of us! Best memories ever!!
Very nice photo, looks like a lovely house, I like the pillars. Sounds like you were a big reader! My granddaughter loves books, she can't get enough of them, which is great!
When my husband and I were 18 we had to buy groceries at the store where you could earn points and get a new encyclopedia volume every few weeks. He just knew our future children would get so much use out of them. Of course we had no kids until we were thirty and by the time they were in school there was Wikipedia and Google.
Great composition--the soft focus and dark shadows hint of memories of days past. Really beautiful! I, too, loved trips to the library and could be happy reading all day. My parents had these ideas about going outdoors, riding bikes & swimming. I was often scolded to "get" my nose out of that book!
My Dad and Mom had both the Encyclopedia Britanica and the World Book Encyclopedia for us so that when we had a report to do we could also work on it at home. The EB was really big and heavy, but the WB had more pictures and I often found myself reading more than one article when I'd pull it off the shelf for a report. Great story!!
September 12th, 2014
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My brother and I were "smart snots", too.... my parents took us with them to all family visits as babysitters were unheard of and my grandparents had passed away, and we both sat quietly in a corner or under a table with books spread out in front of us! Best memories ever!!