Mrs. Schulkoski and the Eureka library

March 13, 1999

Grand Forks N.D.

Dear classmates and friends,

The other night just before Emily went to sleep she asked me to tell her some stories about the farm. (She hates going to sleep, has since infancy, and will do anything to put off saying good night.) Do you miss your life on the farm, she asked? No, was my honest answer. I have a lot of special memories of farm life but there was too much heavy lifting for me and too much isolation. It seems incredible to me now, but I remember some summers before I got my drivers license when I hardly ever got to town at all. My parents didn't play softball or own a boat or do any of those summer recreational things. I never even learned how to swim. I remember one summer when I was so bored and lonely I made up a whole imaginary world of people and places and families. I would ride my bicycle around the farm and on the gravel roads and section lines and over the cow paths and dream about those people and places. I made up stories about what they did and what happened to them and conversations between them. What else could I do? Our black and white TV set only got two channels. There was no such thing as renting a movie or playing video games. And as for talking on the phone, we were on a six- or eight-family party line. Hogging the phone was considered rude, plus everyone in the neighborhood listened in.

When I was a little girl Eureka still had open night on Saturday nights. That's when the stores and businesses all stayed open late and everyone came to town to shop and visit. I loved to go to the Saturday night movie at the Lyric Theater, where I am pretty sure I saw every Walt Disney movie ever made in the '60s, plus all the Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon epics including "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini."

One my favorite things about Saturday night in Eureka was my weekly trip to the Eureka library. How I loved that place. The first public library I remember was located in a small room off the east side of the school cafeteria. Sometime in the mid-60s it moved to much more spacious quarters in the basement of the then-new Municpal Building. One thing that was the same in both places was the librarian, Mrs. Schulkoski. What a sweet lady she was, always so pleasant to us.

I loved to read the adventures of Nancy Drew and the Happy Hollisters and the Bobsey Twins. I also enjoyed true adventures of the Old West and American heroes, such as Clara Barton and Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln and Davey Crocket and the Alamo. Every time I left the library I had an armload of books and sometimes I couldn't wait to get home to read them. I remember several times when I stayed up most of the night because I couldn't wait to see how Nancy solved the mystery and thwarted the villains. The next morning I would be so tired in church, only Rev. Baudler's most thunderous sermon and my mother's dirtiest looks could keep me awake.

Mrs. Schulkoski passed away this week at the grand age of 93. And so today I am thinking about all the wonderful things this good and caring librarian did for those of us who grew up in Eureka. She encouraged learning and discovery for generations of kids and she made the library a bright and cheerful place to be. She helped us become good readers and to see beyond our little town and the farms we grew up on to a big wide world all around us. Today I still love to read and there are few places I would rather be than in a library. And for that I give many thanks to Eureka's public library and the lady who devoted so much of her life to it.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Schulkoski.

From your friend, Paulette