Friday, January 29, 2010

Flint Artifacts: The Catcher in the Rye Circulation Card from Powers High School Library





11 comments:

  1. How funny to see all those familiar names! I was always fascinatd by library cards, especially books that had been in a collection for decades. So, Gordie, when does the book's current "borrower" plan to return it?

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  2. Well, I never officially checked it out when I "borrowed" it, so it's not officially due yet.

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  3. OK Professor Gordie:
    For bonus points, name the respective teachers at the time of graduation in 1984 by the room numbers on the library card...

    Good luck!

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  4. Oh God, numbers. As Mr. Drumm at Powers can attest, Prof. Gordie is not so good with anything to do with numbers.

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  5. oh man! anybody from Flint has time to do a number! You gettin' that scarey in Yer old age?!

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  6. Serendipity. My almost 12 year old son recently read 'The Catcher in the Rye' and carries it with him wherever he goes in case he gets bored. He claims that some random 8th grader walked by him at school, said 'this book sucks', and tossed it to him. But I'm thinking maybe he has the same library policy as Gordie did. Either way, he isn't going to part with it.
    Kristen

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  7. Gordie,
    A lot of libraries used those cards, and most people wouldn't care if you knew their identity. In the age of the Patriot Act, I'm glad that patron confidentiality is upheld. I hate those slips, too. Genesee District Library uses them. It's the new trend for libraries. Where I work, we still stamp the date in the book.

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  8. After receiving a 4.0 in Statistics, regarding your math skills involved in compiling the data in Flint's Annual Homicide Numbers, I'm a little reluctant to accept your excuse about the library card info test. Prof.

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  9. Hold onto that. Now that JD has passed, it might be worth something.
    BTW, Mr. Furnas called. You owe $9,429 in late fees. (But he'll settle for an even $9k if you give your real address to the Powers Alumni Assoc.)

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  10. Uh, Genesee District Library hasn't used these slips since at least 1992. They've printed out receipts since 2004.

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  11. It was a big joke among my high school friends that every time I had more than four beers I would endeavor to call J.D. Salinger. There were telephone operators on the East Coast that actually would recall me when I would speak with them. I was obsessed, but, obsessed in the "good way" (unlike Mark Chapman). Okay....so maybe there's no good way to be obsessed with a celebrity. Anyway, if he was still alive my advice would be this: don't try to ring him up.....it doesn't work!

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.