The Library Book Due in 1962

While helping my grandmother clean out her bookshelves, I found a copy of "Charlotte's Web" with a library stamp inside the cover. It was due back at the Elm Street branch library on March 14, 1962.

My grandmother turned bright red and confessed she'd borrowed it when she was ten and loved it too much to return it. She'd been feeling guilty for sixty-one years.

We drove it to the library together, which is still there. The librarian looked at the date, then at my grandmother, and burst out laughing. She called over every librarian in the building to see it.

They waived the fine, which would have been about two thousand dollars. They took a photo of my grandmother holding the book for the library newsletter. Then the head librarian gave her a brand new copy of "Charlotte's Web" as a gift. My grandmother hugged it like a long-lost friend.