fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Perils of a librarian

by Paul Smart
July 6, 2020
in Village Voices
1

If you’ve read your entire life and written for a living, you store people and events: flamboyant developers, towns full of angry ex-New York City folks, strange stories involving back road abductions, toothless couples cheating on each other, dentists accused of murder, top doctors going off their meds.

My first nine months as a library clerk pushed me to rewatch The Wire. I wanted to run diary entries from my work experience alongside notes taken while watching the classic series’ dark glimpse into the various systems by which modern cities live.

A 14-year-old with his pants slung below his ass threatens to shoot my ass. A drunk homeless man puts a leaking bag of beer on a desk, and suddenly the entire branch starts smelling like a bar. An increasingly belligerent guy begins riffing about his years as a bouncer. Two sisters get in a fight, crying, wrenching the extensions from each other’s hair, and breaking each other’s glasses. Someone spits on a librarian. Someone else bounces a brick off our window.

Magical moments, too. A library full of attitude-drenched teens talking in Elizabethan slang after they overhear a group of adults reading Shakespeare out loud. Dance-offs with earphones. A six-year-old who takes out two volumes of the Library of America’s collected William James then returns them when he realizes there are no pictures.

Several kids took to hugging me. They smelled of piss and had been kicked out of all libraries for anger issues, but I’d sit with them out front and let them talk and cry. I’d bring them wipes, to clear those tears, and a cold drink.

I refused to press charges when the library asked me to after I got punched in the face by another kid. I yelled at an assistant principal from the nearby middle school when she pushes a kid into a closet and locks the door.

I abandoned my Wire notes. Too academic.

Most of the shootings this year and last have been by kids. A 17-year-old I met killed two people.  I try to find a place of empathy and understanding for the motivation, the way such plots must build and gain resonance.

I realize I can make a plot, but only one based on other plots.

I file the stories. They help me live.

 

Read more installments of Village Voices by Paul Smart.

Tags: Paul Smart Village Voices
Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

I have stories to tell

Next Post

Build better wings

Paul Smart

Related Posts

Village Voices are on hold
Village Voices

Village Voices are on hold

November 17, 2020
A liberal education
Village Voices

Keeping it all together

August 24, 2020
Writing about oneself
Village Voices

I need a day off

August 24, 2020
Saugerties initiative combating addiction and suicide adds more events
Village Voices

Time travel

August 24, 2020
Where to buy face masks locally
Village Voices

A story of three states

September 2, 2020
The kids talk politics
Village Voices

Stories on the ballot

August 23, 2020
Next Post
Build better wings

Build better wings

Please login to join discussion

Trending News

  • Local therapists provide uninterrupted free care to foster-care kids 2.7k views
  • Eating order executed in New Paltz 1.2k views
  • Saugerties neighbors fear impacts of auto repair shop 1.2k views
  • Hapag Kainan in Highland offers Filipino culinary delights 794 views
  • Moriello Pool in New Paltz will open on weekends beginning May 28 523 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
66°
Mostly Cloudy
5:25am8:20pm EDT
Feels like: 66°F
Wind: 8mph S
Humidity: 68%
Pressure: 30.08"Hg
UV index: 0
FriSatSun
79/64°F
75/54°F
81/59°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In

© 2022 Ulster Publishing