An early postcard shows the Kohrs Memorial Library in Deer Lodge, Montana. An addition was built in recent years to accommodate the broadening of services.
By Kevin S. Giles
When I was a boy in western Montana I discovered the wonders of our local library. Granite steps led upward between a pair of sleek double pillars to heavy glass-and-brass doors. Behind those doors awaited a place of enforced quiet where the stern librarian tolerated only occasional whispers and the ticking of an ancient clock. There was a reverence about the place. To a book lover, ascending into that magnificent entrance felt like swinging open the gates of heaven. Or so I speculated, having no practical experience with the afterlife beyond the lessons at Sunday school at the Presbyterian Church.
Fines and admonitions
Books, all of the hardcover variety, filled rows of shelves in our town library. I came to appreciate how the struggle to learn the Dewey Decimal system in the public schools up the street had its merits.