…library, eh? free? what a freakin’ concept!!

Working in a pharmacy, people in their mid to later decades come in and ask the pharmacist what they should buy for sore throats and headaches. Hmmmm…50, 60 years old, never taken anything for either malady before? Yeah, people boggle me….

I wonder if it isn’t ignorance but cynicism that caused both the questions about the library and the pharmacy.

After all, libraries and pharmacies have been around for all our lives. However, if the last time you went to one was to get a prescription for sulfa drugs or leeches filled you might be moved to ask what’s available as your preferred remedies may no longer be available.

As for the library - perhaps the woman was shocked to find that in a world where we charge for nearly *everything* (remember when water was free?), the library still doesn’t cost anything.

I loved this episode. I work in a library. This (plus more) happens to us everyday. You couldn’t imagine the things that people do and say to the librarian. It keeps the job interesting.

I nearly wrecked the car, I was laughing so hard. I, too, am a librarian and the stories I could tell! From the little boy looking for the very specific book on puppies who said, “I like librarians who can find things and I just know you are that kind of librarian,” to the woman looking for books on urine, “you know, where you drink your own urine to heal yourself,” and so many more in-between. Oh, I can’t forget the middle-aged balding guy who locked up one of the public use computers with porn and then claimed he had no idea how it happened–he was trying to look up real estate listings in Georgia. Yeah, right.