Playtime On The Job

Even after living in New Jersey for almost a year there were so many things that were different from growing up and living in the Southwest
that took a lot of getting used to. Living in a small borough, as the smaller towns were called, was different especially in a community where the average age was sixty-five. Traditions ran very deep.

I can remember seeing a movie when I was about sixteen called "Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation".  I was very good at daydreaming about life somewhere else and had not yet gotten over wanting to be "Gidget", surfing and falling in love with Moondoggie.  Having the Hobbs movie come along created more fantasies this time about going and spending the entire summer in a ramshackle house on the beach. For a teenager who never even went on vacations much less fell in love with the likes of James Darren or Fabian a summer on the beach was a real dream.

Since Riverton was founded in the 1850's as a summer escape from Philadelphia by the wealthy families the escape tradition still held true. The only difference that as transportation improved the escape was to the Jersey shore and one of the forty-four towns that lined the beach. If you were ANYBODY you owned a summer home on the shore or scraped up enough money to at least rent a place for a week or two. Even with the advent of air conditioning the tradition remained.

Because so many families spent the summer or at least part of August at the shore school did not start until the Thursday after Labor Day. School also did not get out until the middle of June.  Planning a Summer program at the Library had to revolve around people being gone for extended vacations, loss of volunteers and kids whose parents could spend a lot of time away from their jobs. Being new to the whole Library thing was not easy either.

Summer hours for the Library were 9:00 to 5:00, closed Saturday and Sunday.  More than worrying about what to do with Wes and Wally there was a lot of guilt feeling about not being home and able to do things with them during the summer. This would be the first summer I eleven years I had not been home. I never did understand how women could not at least be home with the children in the summer.

My dear friend, Sis, had storytime for the preschoolers on Tuesday mornings and crafts for the older kids on Thursday mornings.  Wes went to sailing lessons every morning until noon and Wally, even at six years of age enjoyed the storytime and loved the crafts. So that took care of two mornings of the week.