Ever Built A Library? A Tid-Bit Too Long For Twitter

National Library Week is coming to an end, so I thought I'd share with you a library-related tidbit from my past.

 

Gunk. That's what most would call the substance found in the hollow of my neighbor's tree. We had bigger plans for it though - mix it with some water, spread it between a couple bricks, and turns out we'd made ourselves some mortar. Cool! Let's build something.

So what did 3 elementary school girls decide to build with their pile of bricks and their magic tree mortar? Well, a library, of course.

Building permit? Bah - Unecessary. Funds for books? We had our own books.

And we wanted to share our books with the neighborhood.

So every day that week, I'd run across the street and meet up with the ladies and we'd get to work laying bricks.
A library. Our very own library. I couldn't wait. I envisioned buying laminating paper and creating a pile of library cards.

About Day 4, one of the parents came outside and saw the row of bricks (we'd begun laying down the perimeter before piling them high) glued to their lawn. What are you doing? We're building a library, duh. And just like that - operation stomped.

The funny thing about our magic tree mortar is that it actually worked. Those bewildered parents were unable to pry the bricks from their lawn. Years later, when new neighbors moved in they asked about the bricks, to which I responded, "Oh, those are from the library we were building."

One day.