Storytime morning and I was surrounded by the preschoolers.
(where else in a library would you find the ADHD boy?)
Anyway I was half way through the first story
"The Tricky Truck Track" when a mother interjected with
"Slow Down"
now being the caring and considerate guy I am I muttered
"no"
and carried on regardless.
A short time later she gets up with her kid and walks out.
Now I know my 'no' was short sharp and rude but so was her interrupting the story. If the kids interrupt I can deal with it, ignore it? Say that's nice now sit down. But when the parents do it can I treat them the same way?
So was I reading fast? Sure, the book is a bit of a tongue twister and it works well at a fast pace the kids roar with laughter when I #$%^& up and stutter my way through it.
End of the story?
No,
it turns out she was so unhappy with my performance she complained (to one of the library assistants).
In a conversation which went something like this.
Patron: "what happened to the other man who tells stories?"
Staff: "umm, there's only one man who tells stories"
p: "oh. Well I'm not happy I told him to slow down and he said no and he tells stories like he's on crack."
Now let me interject, how does she know what a crackhead reading to preschoolers sounds like? Does she go to the crackhouse storytime on a Tuesday and the library storytime on a Thursday?
Anyway she has vowed never to come back to the library. If I believed her I'd be happy but experience tells me that the patrons who complain most about our services are the ones who will not go away.
25 March, 2004
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