I hope that you know a Helen Chariton, or perhaps you know or knew the actual Helen Chariton. According to a report on HighBeam, she was 81 in 2003 which would have made her in her 50s when I knew her in the early to mid-70s. When I met her she was librarian at the Canastota Public Library. I remember that building well, a large brick building with a stairway just inside the main doors that led upstairs to where the children/young adults section was. My first library card was a golden ticket that enabled me to leave the world behind and explore a vast imagination.

Through it all, Helen Chariton was a travel agent extraordinaire. She introduced me to Glooscap and Malsumis; I can still remember where all of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books were shelved, on the first freestanding bookcase along the bottom. Every summer's reading program she helped schedule journeys through local legend, history and far-flung adventures. She always had time to share not only her love of reading but her knowledge, and she seemed to intuitively know what books I needed to read, to stretch my exploration of imagination to the utmost. It was Mrs. Chariton who introduced me to Dashiell Hammet's Sam Spade and "the, uh, stuff that dreams are made of" in book form, though I enjoyed Bogart's version as well. In fact, after we moved I discovered that I still had that book checked out, though I'm not sure what happened to it in the intervening years.

My family moved from Canastota in the late 70's, and I was very disappointed in the local library. I was fortunate that there were other libraries not too far away and ended up taking many a journey at the Fairfield County Library, but those were all journeys of self-exploration as I never found a travel-guide there to replace the role Helen Chariton played in my life.

I was richer for having her in my life and I hope that everyone has someone to play that role in their lives. I know that my Nae does that for our grandchildren and I hope that I do that, to some extent.

So I hope that you have a Helen Chariton in your life, to fuel the joy of reading, to help you to explore your imagination until you reach a point that it is second nature to do so.