oldlibraryman

I was a middle school teacher and librarian who taught for 43 years. I was a classroom teacher for 25 years teaching at various times: reading, English, history, French, art, drama, and speech. I was a librarian for 18 years. I am married with three grown daughters and two grown sons. Sadly I have only three grandsons and no granddaughters. The sad part is not having a "flock" of grandchildren. Several of my former students have "adopted" me as a grandpa and keep me up to date on all their activities. My wife was also a teacher, second grade. We have lived in the same house for 47 years.

I love classical music, perhaps the best, but also the music of the 1900s through the 1970s and lots and lots of opera. I do listen to all styles of music except heavy metal, rap, and hip-hop. I have a huge collection of vinyl and CDs, mainly classical, 1920s, big band, and 50s-60s. I have 12 playlists on YouTube under the name "Chanteamoi." I like too many singers and groups to single anyone out as my favorite.

As an early teen librarian, I read mostly young adult and juvenile literature. I must say that this area of modern fiction is some of the best literature being written. And 90% of it is clean-the rest I avoid. I also read history written for adults. I used to attend the American Library Association conference every other year or so(depending on where the conference was), but I only got a floor pass. That is a pass that allowed me on the exhibit floor where I collected bags full of free advance readers' copies of new books from publishers and vendors and get author signatures for many of them.

I love westerns, movies of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, musicals, film noire, classy comedies, and quite a few of the hollywood melodramas of the "Golden Age." Some recent films I really enjoyed are The Actor, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moonrise Kingdom, Lincoln, and Les Miz. Especially love the old Mickey Rooney films.

I do not watch current sitcoms. I do not like the content of most of them. The comedies are usually vulgar and not funny. I do watch some of the "oldies" on MeTV and streaming services. I do watch a lot of BritBox British mysteries.

Mail art, ATCs, book arts, paper making and decorating. I have taken many classes in book binding and artists' books, and I have taught book arts at public libraries, elementary schools, and, of course, my own school before I retired. I send out many decorated envelopes each month to family and friends with a newsletter, but I receive very little in return. I blog about my mail art and bookmaking, as well as other interests including memoir writing at oldlibraryman.blogspot.com.

I have written and published three plays, have acted in numerous community theatre productions and some film work. I also write memoir pieces which I am told are quite good, and which I sometimes post on my blog.

I really like handcrafted cards, postcards, and mail art. I enjoy trading ATCs, zines, and origami books. I usually make small, numbered editions of my work, so I can trade with several collectors and have a copy for my own collection. If I send out every piece of the edition, I make an electronic copy for my records. I also like making art for my large flower and vegetable garden.

If you do not receive a swap from me, please email me, and I will re-send it. The post office is getting less reliable these days. It took four weeks to deliver a letter to an address four miles from my home! I always send. I have received several cards and envies that have been damaged , i.e. torn, marked and/or scratched, by the postal machinery. I sent an envie to myself after I had it hand canceled, and the post office sent it through the machinery anyway. I also sent a card to South Carolina with Postcrossing and it never arrived. As much as I like postal arting and postcarding, the post office is not as reliable or careful with our art as we would all like it to be. I had two letters, one postcard, and one bill undelivered and unreturned (LOST) by the post office.