My Father's Books
The Books That Bind
Tome Work Made ‘Friends Of The Library’ Into Best Pals
By Heather Bowser, Daily News-Record. October 25, 2006
Photo by Thomas J. Turney
Esther Boyd (left) and her friend Sandy Rose sort books on Monday in preparation for the Massanutten library's fall book sale. The Harrisonburg women, along with Jean Taylor, have become good friends while working on the project.HARRISONBURG — Sometimes, friendships bloom under the strangest of circumstances.
Esther Boyd, Sandy Rose and Jean Taylor say they have little in common.
Boyd, 63, is a former schoolteacher from Scotland. She’s shy and speaks with a heavy accent (yes, even after living in the Friendly City for 30 years.)
Rose, 61, considers herself an animal welfare activist and a "mad gardener." A talkative "Yankee," Rose is new to the area and comes from New England by way of Miami.
Taylor, 74, is a quiet woman, a retired pharmacologist who worked for 30 years at the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C. She reads at least six books a week.
But despite their divergent backgrounds, the three Harrisonburg women say they’ve grown to love one another. And, they say, it was a book sale, which will happen again next week, that brought them together.
For two hours every Monday, the three friends — who are the sole active members of the "Friends of the Massanutten Regional Library" — unpack, organize and price books for the library’s biannual book sale fundraiser.
Every week, the women work in the back room of the downtown building to mastermind the library’s biggest non-event fundraiser — all by themselves.
After months and years of working side by side, the "Friends of the Library" said they became friends at the library. Library workers affectionately dubbed the volunteer trio, "the little old ladies in the back."
"We love our Mondays," Rose said. "We’d do anything for each other."
Friendship Begins
The book magic began in the early 1990s, when Boyd became a "Friend of the Library" and helped workers place bar-code stickers on every single book.
A few years later, Taylor joined the "Friends" and the two women worked together to judge a children’s essay contest.
Years passed and library projects came and went. Meanwhile, the "Friends" group grew to several members but eventually diminished, leaving only the two women to manage projects.
One day about two years ago, Boyd struck up a conversation with Rose during a library function.
"Sandy mentioned that she loved the library, so I told her, ‘If you love it, put your money where your mouth is,’" explained Boyd while poking at her friend.
And the book-sale trio was born.
Each week, the library ladies work and work while chatting away about everything from books to grandchildren to the weather. Sometimes they talk a lot, and sometimes they quietly buzz around the back room, busily organizing the sale’s 5,000 books.
"We spend all year filling up boxes and filling up boxes," Boyd said. Then, during the sale, "it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world to see them finally empty."
Different Strokes, Different Folks
And empty them they do.
Since 2003, revenue from the sale has nearly tripled, library officials say. Last year, the library ladies helped rake in more than $10,500.
"It’s just incredible to us that three little old ladies can almost single-handedly raise more than $10,000 a year for the library," said Barbara Bush, the library’s spokeswoman. "They just wear their little hands to the bones every Monday and we love them to death."
To get the job done, the women say they divide and conquer.
Boyd is the brains behind the operation, Taylor explained. She oversees the organization and recruits the extra help for sale days.
Taylor uses her vast book knowledge to sort many of the nonfiction books and then manages the money during the sale.
Rose operates the American and British classics but mostly, the women say, her job seems to be providing running commentary on all the books as she shuffles them (which, incidentally, is why they say Rose is not the most efficient worker of the trio.)
"I’m slow as molasses, but I guess three workers is still better than two," Rose admitted. "But still, it’s terrible sometimes. It’s like having a candy dish passed in front of your nose every day and you can’t eat any."
But Boyd keeps her on track.
"If I see her standing there with her nose in a book, I say, ‘Quit that, Sandy, let’s go.’"
And she does. Rose puts the book in a box and returns to the literature section, only to discover yet another favorite the group must know about.
"We just like being surrounded by books," Taylor said. "It’s just so marvelous."
Copyright © 2006, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
