Skip to content

@ Your Library: Board member Maddess missed at Creston library

There have been changes in the library board since I arrived six years ago, but the board members I worked with when I first arrived will be the ones I will remember the most. Several of those members are still active on the board and are my anchors. One of those first board members, Norma Maddess, was more than an anchor.

There have been changes in the library board since I arrived six years ago, but the board members I worked with when I first arrived will be the ones I will remember the most. Several of those members are still active on the board and are my anchors. One of those first board members, Norma Maddess, was more than an anchor not just for me but for all the people she touched. Her steady and unfailing calm nature and positive, non-judgemental outlook on people and on life were qualities I only wish I had. They were just natural to Norma and she was steadfast and balancing force to anyone around her. Norma did several terms on the library board and was part of the team responsible for securing the new library and funding from the Regional District of Central Kootenay for the future of the library. There is a big space where she was and it is felt not only by the library but by everyone who knew her or had met her. We will miss her a great deal.

Museum manager Tammy Hardwick, in her usual meticulous and very informative fashion, has contributed a wonderful account of Creston library history to the I Love Creston magazine available now. I was aware of four library locations but there seems to have been a great many more since the library’s inception. We are hoping any future articles on the library won’t have to include another location after the present one as we have finally unpacked all the boxes and taken everything out of storage.

Still talking about the museum, the current art show in the library has been provided by the museum and one of my favourites so far. It is a small peek at the history of art in Creston and some of the creativity of its residents. Tammy and her volunteers have pulled together a wonderfully local, homey collection of art from the works held at the museum. It includes everything from the accomplished canvases of Margaret Moore to labels from apple boxes when apples were the main crop. The work will be up until the end of the month and the show is not limited to the meeting room. The library walls also display some of Creston’s history in art.

I hope you have kept your opera gloves handy for the remainder of the Creston library opera season. Our resident opera host has requested The Marriage of Figaro as the next presentation at the end of March and The Magic Flute for April. The last Saturday of the month is usually opera night unless you read otherwise.

To end with library basics, among the numerous books cluttering my space, two have fully engrossed me. The first, Cutting for Stone, will be making the book club rounds very soon, I suspect. The author is Abraham Verghese and it was not until last night that I opened the back cover for information on Verghese. He was born and raised in Ethiopia, and currently holds two very prestigious positions in medicine at Stanford and the University of Texas Health Science Center. He writes about what he is familiar with and his writing is engaging, often brilliant and nothing but enriching to the reader.

Not so much enriching as entertaining, several of Jeremy Clarkson’s books are now available in the library. If you know the BBC television show Top Gear (beware, it has addictive powers and a cult-like following in Creston), you are familiar with Clarkson and his often over the top political incorrectness and wit. The books are compilations of newspaper writings in the U.K. and some involve cars, some don’t. Even the car passages are readable to those with no interest in car engines or horsepower. If you have any sensitivity toward foxes, people with red hair, Americans or any person in power in the U.K., you might want to avoid any of Clarkson’s work. The three books are Driven to Distraction, For Crying Out Loud and the one I have, How Hard Can it Be?.

Ann Day is the chief librarian at the Creston and District Public Library.