December 2006 The Megaphone Page 5
The Library
by Dick Cleaver
During the turn of the century the Carnegie Foundation provided the funds to build several Libraries in towns throughout the country, especially where their steel and tin plate mills were located. In 1903 Elwood was fortunate to have been selected by the Foundation to receive $30,000 to construct a beautiful library built out of stone quarried in southern Indiana. I believe this is the same stone used to build the US Capital Building. The Elwood library was one of my favorite places to spend time while I was growing up. I was never a bookworm because I couldn’t see well. Reading was so difficult for me that I had to reread lines over and over again to get much meaning from the books. I had astigmatism and maybe some dyslexia that went undetected during my grade school days and I didn’t get glasses until I was in high school. By this time I was a “C” student at best. I always tried to sit near the front in all my classrooms but this was of little help.
Some of my neighborhood friends and I would walk to the Elwood Public Library each week. We would spend a few hours in that wonderful quiet atmosphere with a great multitude of books with pictures of people in foreign lands and look at pictures through a 3-D viewer. I attempted to read books the librarian would find for me, but always found it difficult. The studies that were difficult for me in school became easier with the aid of glasses. When I was in high school I struggled for a passing grade in accounting in Betty House’s class. Joyce Sholl, '45 (the class brain) sat next to me and was good enough to help. Later, accounting and banking became my profession. After graduation from high school I had to force myself to read books. As my reading gradually improved I felt the need to pursue an education. In 1950, before I was to be drafted into the Army, I asked my math teacher, Mr. Donald Brown, to tutor me in algebra and geometry to help me prepare for the army exam to become eligible for officers training. I passed the Army exam and was sent to become an officer in the Guided Missile and Antiaircraft Artillery School at Fort Bliss, Texas. Later I studied accounting, sales and business through LaSalle U. and took course work at I. U., and then finished studies in Banking and Finance at Colorado U. in Boulder. I have always given some credit to my visits to the library for some of the motivation I needed to pursue my education and career success. Visiting the library can be a great place for entertainment, as well as foster the desire for a more formal education in young people. I recommend it to all my grandchildren rather than just TV, computers or video games. I heard a comedian once say, “It is a wonder that kids today don’t have eyes the size of a grapefruit and a brain the size of a pea." When our kids were small, Queen would visit the library each week and get a dozen children’s books to read to our kids. As adults, I hear our children making comments about some of the books that were read to them when they were small. She still carries an arm load of books home each week and trades her booklist with all of her friends.
In the late1980s when it was determined that the Elwood Public Library building needed to have either extensive repairs or the city must plan to rebuild. I served on the feasibility committee to make recommendations to our library board. I have to admit that I went into that assignment a bit biased because of my love for that old building. After our youngest left home, Queen and I experienced a terrible case of empty-nest-syndrome. After rearing nine children Queen became very active in art, music and course work at Ball State, and then worked at the library for five years. I guess I married a woman who loved the library as much as I did.
Dick Cleaver, ’47
to Page 6