Sister's Choice Quilts

My interests are quilting, reading, cooking, family, decorating, and matters of style. I post regular quilting tutorials and book reviews of current fiction.

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Overdue

Overdue-Stamp

I have a funny story to share.  While my husband was having his surgery last week, I stayed with my father in the Bay Area.  He is an avid reader and consistently gets new books  from the family on every possible gift giving occasion.   He ran out of space on his ample bookshelves some months back, and has been stacking books in piles on the floor in his family room.  I promised him that while I stayed with him, we would go through his bookshelves together and he could choose what books he might like to donate, and make room on the shelves for the newer books in his collection.

To give you a bit of back story, my dad usually reads books that he actually owns.  Books he has owned for years, books he has purchased, or more likely, books he has been given as gifts.  He used to use the library, but back in the 70s he had a falling out with our local library system.  He had turned up at the library and was attempting to check out a stack of books he had chosen, when the librarian refused to let him borrow any books until he paid a rather hefty library fine for an overdue book.  After inquiring what the title of the book was, he insisted that he had never checked out any such book in his life.  My father is a scientist, and the book in question was "American Plays".  Not his cup of tea at all.  

The librarian wouldn't budge, and my father left in a huff, never to return to the city library again.

So, about three hours into the dusty dirty job of cleaning out my dad's book shelves, guess what I found?  You guessed it. "American Plays", with a due date card marked May 30, 1979.

My father was pretty tickled that the book had turned up after being missing for 38 years, but still insisted that he had not been the person to check out the book all that time ago.  After texting my sisters, one of them sheepishly admitted to taking a theater class at the local junior college back in the late 70's, but wasn't accepting blame for checking out the book in our dad's name.   Hmmm.  That is one of those "if the shoe fits" scenarios if I ever heard one.

So, what did we do with the book in question?  Why I anonymously dropped it through the book drop at the local library.  I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they discovered that in the bin.

 

 

69 responses to “Overdue”

  1. Too funny! I assume he never paid the fine. My son use to check out books and materials but never take them back. That drove me crazy!

  2. Too funny! I assume he never paid the fine. My son use to check out books and materials but never take them back. That drove me crazy!

  3. Too funny! I assume he never paid the fine. My son use to check out books and materials but never take them back. That drove me crazy!

  4. HA!! Thanks for the morning laugh! Your Dad is a charmer!!
    Hugs 🙂

  5. HA!! Thanks for the morning laugh! Your Dad is a charmer!!
    Hugs 🙂

  6. HA!! Thanks for the morning laugh! Your Dad is a charmer!!
    Hugs 🙂

  22. That is funny…but probably happens more times than you think. I’ve found an old library book a time or two going through things at my parents’ house. Always return the books without letting the parents know because the parents would always insist it wasn’t theirs (which, technically, it isn’t, but I highly doubt the librarian came into their house and left it there).

  23. That is funny…but probably happens more times than you think. I’ve found an old library book a time or two going through things at my parents’ house. Always return the books without letting the parents know because the parents would always insist it wasn’t theirs (which, technically, it isn’t, but I highly doubt the librarian came into their house and left it there).

  24. That is funny…but probably happens more times than you think. I’ve found an old library book a time or two going through things at my parents’ house. Always return the books without letting the parents know because the parents would always insist it wasn’t theirs (which, technically, it isn’t, but I highly doubt the librarian came into their house and left it there).

  25. Cute story! I can imagine his annoyance way back when the original incident occurred! Have you ever seen the episode of ABC’s “The Middle” where the youngest child has an overdue library book? The poor mom goes to extremes to get him another since he’s lost his check-out privileges.

  26. Cute story! I can imagine his annoyance way back when the original incident occurred! Have you ever seen the episode of ABC’s “The Middle” where the youngest child has an overdue library book? The poor mom goes to extremes to get him another since he’s lost his check-out privileges.

  27. Cute story! I can imagine his annoyance way back when the original incident occurred! Have you ever seen the episode of ABC’s “The Middle” where the youngest child has an overdue library book? The poor mom goes to extremes to get him another since he’s lost his check-out privileges.

  31. The librarian shouldn’t have been rude. I’ve had books show up as still checked out and they take my word for it and just put in a search. Plus my local library – the best library system eve! – doesn’t charge seniors for overdue anything!

  32. The librarian shouldn’t have been rude. I’ve had books show up as still checked out and they take my word for it and just put in a search. Plus my local library – the best library system eve! – doesn’t charge seniors for overdue anything!

  33. The librarian shouldn’t have been rude. I’ve had books show up as still checked out and they take my word for it and just put in a search. Plus my local library – the best library system eve! – doesn’t charge seniors for overdue anything!

  34. Let’s hope that none of the librarians at that library read your blog. That would ruin all the fun!

  35. Let’s hope that none of the librarians at that library read your blog. That would ruin all the fun!

  36. Let’s hope that none of the librarians at that library read your blog. That would ruin all the fun!

  52. Poor guy…its hard to take a stand and then have it pulled out from under you. Nice of you to return the book.

  53. Poor guy…its hard to take a stand and then have it pulled out from under you. Nice of you to return the book.

  54. Poor guy…its hard to take a stand and then have it pulled out from under you. Nice of you to return the book.

  58. OMG! If the shoe fits is right, lol! Brings back memories of my daughter and the books she never borrowed or couldn’t find. They actually have a fine forgiveness day where she lives and brings back overdue books then…yup she never learned 😂

  59. OMG! If the shoe fits is right, lol! Brings back memories of my daughter and the books she never borrowed or couldn’t find. They actually have a fine forgiveness day where she lives and brings back overdue books then…yup she never learned 😂

  60. OMG! If the shoe fits is right, lol! Brings back memories of my daughter and the books she never borrowed or couldn’t find. They actually have a fine forgiveness day where she lives and brings back overdue books then…yup she never learned 😂

  61. So how many shelves did you “clear”. My summer project has been going thru boxes of mags and books that have been in a storage unit 13 years. Most are easy, but I do come across one that I just can’t part with and that tends to end the project for the day. Now I am told that the library book fair does not accept mags over a year old…. and that is crazy in my mind… and books that are more than a couple of years old… this mind you is for a book sale to raise money to buy more books.
    Oh…. I had a discussion with my oldest about library card and she had a big hissy fit and no longer has a library card….

  62. So how many shelves did you “clear”. My summer project has been going thru boxes of mags and books that have been in a storage unit 13 years. Most are easy, but I do come across one that I just can’t part with and that tends to end the project for the day. Now I am told that the library book fair does not accept mags over a year old…. and that is crazy in my mind… and books that are more than a couple of years old… this mind you is for a book sale to raise money to buy more books.
    Oh…. I had a discussion with my oldest about library card and she had a big hissy fit and no longer has a library card….

  63. So how many shelves did you “clear”. My summer project has been going thru boxes of mags and books that have been in a storage unit 13 years. Most are easy, but I do come across one that I just can’t part with and that tends to end the project for the day. Now I am told that the library book fair does not accept mags over a year old…. and that is crazy in my mind… and books that are more than a couple of years old… this mind you is for a book sale to raise money to buy more books.
    Oh…. I had a discussion with my oldest about library card and she had a big hissy fit and no longer has a library card….

  64. Too funny. The library was like a dear friend when I was a child. Books were too expensive for us to buy as many as I would read (and my parents were teachers who believed in reading). I had to be given and “allotment” of books I could have at any one time. What a treasure libraries can be.

  65. Too funny. The library was like a dear friend when I was a child. Books were too expensive for us to buy as many as I would read (and my parents were teachers who believed in reading). I had to be given and “allotment” of books I could have at any one time. What a treasure libraries can be.

  66. Too funny. The library was like a dear friend when I was a child. Books were too expensive for us to buy as many as I would read (and my parents were teachers who believed in reading). I had to be given and “allotment” of books I could have at any one time. What a treasure libraries can be.

  67. Great story. I was on a cruise last week and spent some time in their library.
    While there I read excerpts from several interesting books. One idea I read spoke to me as like your father I have too many books and am starting to burst at the seams. The book was written by an author who was an avid reader who as he was aging challenged himself to weed through his collection. On his 80h birthday he challenged himself to only keep his 100 most favorite books. This was quite a task , which he “cheated” a bit on by counting a trilogy as one. Upon his death his family and friends enjoyed perusing what he had narrowed it down to and spent time postulating about how each book had made the cut. I’ve been thinking of doing this as well. Thank you for the giggle.

  68. Great story. I was on a cruise last week and spent some time in their library.
    While there I read excerpts from several interesting books. One idea I read spoke to me as like your father I have too many books and am starting to burst at the seams. The book was written by an author who was an avid reader who as he was aging challenged himself to weed through his collection. On his 80h birthday he challenged himself to only keep his 100 most favorite books. This was quite a task , which he “cheated” a bit on by counting a trilogy as one. Upon his death his family and friends enjoyed perusing what he had narrowed it down to and spent time postulating about how each book had made the cut. I’ve been thinking of doing this as well. Thank you for the giggle.

  69. Great story. I was on a cruise last week and spent some time in their library.
    While there I read excerpts from several interesting books. One idea I read spoke to me as like your father I have too many books and am starting to burst at the seams. The book was written by an author who was an avid reader who as he was aging challenged himself to weed through his collection. On his 80h birthday he challenged himself to only keep his 100 most favorite books. This was quite a task , which he “cheated” a bit on by counting a trilogy as one. Upon his death his family and friends enjoyed perusing what he had narrowed it down to and spent time postulating about how each book had made the cut. I’ve been thinking of doing this as well. Thank you for the giggle.