The Mysterious Little Free Library In The Middle of Nowhere
What is inside? Who curates it? Why does it have a charter number but no further information?
Recently, I made a drive from my home out to the area where I had my first job as a librarian. It’s not a long drive, about 45 minutes or so, and I was heading out to an all mid-century modern estate sale. The furnace in my house had stopped working and I dragged my daughter with so that my husband could deal with that without the interference of an almost 3-year-old.
There are several ways to make the trek. One takes you down a highway, then onto a state highway. The other one takes you a more direct route and it is entirely rural–the most notable things on the drive are ramshakle farms with Trump signs (he doesn’t care about you!) or farms that have “Pritzker Sucks” signs on them (conversely, he might actually care about you!). Peppering the drive are several tornado sirens, as this particular area is just outside the ridge that keeps the more suburban communities slightly more protected from bad weather.
But really, that’s about it. There is only one spot on the drive with a posted speed limit, as you need to slow down to 45 at an intersection that contains 3 or 4 houses near one another.
It is an area where you would not expect to find a Little Free Library.
But there it was. Just over the county line, this Little Free Library sits off the main road on a dirt path that looks a lot like the kind of road you’d take to visit a rest stop while on the highway.
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