 Are you the keeper of your family papers? Do you know how to properly care for them, so they can be passed down through future generations? Jim Baggett, archivist for the City of Birmingham and the Birmingham Public Library, will teach us everything we need to know. Bring any letters, photos, etc. that you'd like to share.
There are many basic and inexpensive things you can do to ensure that your family letters, scrapbooks, and photographs are preserved for the future. Learn the fundamentals of home archiving at a free presentation on Monday, September 16, at 6:30 p.m. at Moon Lake Community Library. Topics covered include:
Librarian Jim Baggett is the archivist for the Birmingham Public Libraries and the City of Birmingham. He and his family live part-time at their home on Little River near Mentone. Jim is the author of two books about Alabama history: Alabama Illustrated—Engravings from 19th Century Newspapers and Historic Photos of Birmingham. This winter, he will present a program about the 1918 influenza outbreak in Alabama, which has a Mentone connection.
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 Enjoy playing a variety of games with your neighbors and friends (old and new) at Moon Lake Community Library. Bring your favorite game or come learn how to play a new one.
Games are good for your brain, and playing them with others is good for your spirit. Bring a finger food to share in the pot luck. Coffee, tea and water will be provided. All ages are welcome. The fun starts at 6pm.  Join fellow book lovers for a discussion of The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. This bestselling historical novel tells the story of Hedy Lemarr, the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication. Booklist calls it a “compelling fictionalized biography [that] pays tribute to the overlooked scientific contributions and the hidden depths of a stunning beauty and beloved movie star.”
The book club will meet on Saturday, September 21, at 10:30 a.m. at Moon Lake Community Library (where the book is available for check-out). Everyone is welcome to join the discussion. Coffee and hot tea will be served.  I consider myself a staunch environmentalist. I’ve been active in environmental battles for most of my adult life. When recycling became a major issue, I was out there with my banner preaching against the curse of our American habit of Make It, Use It, then Throw It Away. I’ve made posters and presented lectures on the value of matching nature’s circular, let-nothing-go-to-waste process. So, imagine my shame when I realized that I had become complacent about the value of recycling. I can make excuses. After all, I moved here from a city where my recyclables were picked up at the curb. What? You mean I must take my recyclables to a recycling center 10 miles away?!? That could take me as much as half an hour a month! But suffering soul that I am, I did it. The only problem was that, over time, I was recycling less and less and not really giving much thought to the Reuse, Recycle, Reduce mantra. And I wasn’t staying current with what is recyclable at our local recycling center. And I was way behind the times regarding the effect of plastics in our landfills and our lives. It was clearly time to revive my environmental spirit and Think Globally, Act Locally. I learned what was currently recyclable at the Fort Payne Recycling Center. I learned that the center is clean, well-organized, open 24/7, and it accepts a lot more items than one might think. I talked with the manager of the center, Theresa Stone, and found her to be knowledgeable, helpful, and dedicated to recycling. I studied the plastic recycle resin codes and learned why they are so important. With a little bit of research and a lot of helpful hints from Theresa and from websites like Earth911.com, I have been able to reduce my household waste stream by more than half. So, once again, I’ll raise my environmental banner and ask that you search your own recycling soul. Do you know what is recyclable locally right now? Do you know whether you can put that oil-stained pizza box into the cardboard bin? Do you know whether the recycling center now takes wide-mouthed plastic bottles? Do you know how to tell whether the plastic bottle cap can be recycled with the bottle? Are you unconsciously throwing away things that could be recycled? And when it comes to plastics, are there better choices than recycling? Come to Moon Lake Community Library on Saturday, September 14, at 12:30 p.m. and I’ll answer these questions and more. You’ll learn some valuable information and laugh while you’re doing it (think “recycling fashion show”). And you’ll be doing the yourself and the earth a favor. —Tobey Miller
More fun evenings are in store as we gather around the game tables. Bring your favorite game or come learn how to play a new one.
Games are good for your brain, and playing them with others is good for your spirit. Bring a finger food to share in the pot luck. Coffee, tea and water will be provided. All ages are welcome.  Award-winning photographer John Dersham has released a new book, My Alabama: John Dersham Photographs a State, a selection of 200 images of the state from Dersham’s vast catalog of over 50,000. These photographs offer a unique and stunning portrait of Alabama’s diverse natural, topographical, and cultural assets. The book, which carries a foreword by Bo Jackson, was published in May 2019 with the support of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission.
My Alabama is organized seasonally. Dersham shares a journey with readers from a warm, green Alabama spring on the Cahaba River to a summer evening on Cherokee County’s Weiss Lake. Throw on a coat on a frosty morning and find one of the state’s many waterfalls, like Pisgah Gorge Falls, or wander a path on the snow-covered Lookout Mountain. Readers move past breathtaking landscapes, scenic village crossroads with rustic country stores, and gleaming cityscapes shining in the evening light. From Guntersville Lake to the peaks of Monte Sano, from the port of Mobile to rural St. Clair County, Dersham captures the astonishing varied beauty of the Yellowhammer State in every shot. John Dersham’s art photography and commercial work has been featured in gallery and other exhibits nationwide, and and he is an experienced photography instructor and speaker. His love of photography was developed during the 30 years he spent working at Kodak. Today, Dersham is president of DeKalb Tourism in Fort Payne. John Dersham will present an Author Talk and book signing at Moon Lake Community Library on Monday evening, August 12, at 6:30. This free multi-media program is suitable for all ages. Refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase.  Join fellow book lovers on for a discussion of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore. The book tells the true story of early 20th-century American women who were hired to paint watch dials with a luminous and deadly substance. The story is historically informative, unsettling, and, ultimately, inspiring.
The book club will meet on Saturday, August 17, at 10:30 a.m. at Moon Lake Community Library in Mentone (where the book is available for check-out). Everyone is welcome to join the discussion. Coffee and hot tea will be served. Many thanks to Joe and Tessa Hughes for their generous donation (which will be matched by Tessa’s company). Thanks also to Kenneth Shigley for his donation of Moon Lake School yearbooks from the years 1952 and 1953. If you’d like to see them, please feel free to come by the library and have a look. Everyone was enthralled by Mike Ellis' magic show in June…many thanks to Mike for presenting his fun and inspiring program, “The Magic of Reading.” (Did you know…he learned how to do magic from a BOOK?!) We have many programs slated for July, both fun and educational. Our summer social was so much fun last year that one of the grandmothers who brought her grandchildren asked for the date in early May, saying she wanted to plan their summer schedule around it. It's on Saturday, July 20, and I hope you’ll find it as fun as she did. If you fancy yourself a pie baker, please enter our pie contest! This year's pie judges will be Mentone Police Chief Gene McKee, Fire Chief Joseph Lee, and DeSoto Rescue Squad 2nd Lieutenant JD Trammell. Mentone Town Clerk Kristen Emory will coordinate the contest for us. Once the winning pies have been picked, everyone can gather around and eat them! As well, MERF has arranged for an ice cream truck to be at the social, so bring some money for your favorite cold summer treat! (Everything else is free.) Some of our patrons have been asking for help with their Kindle e-readers, so if you, too, would like some assistance, we'll be happy to help. Bring your Kindle to the library during open hours and we can give you a brief tutorial on how to use it. Don't forget…we have computers and a printer/copier for your use at no charge. People have used them for job applications, tax forms, signing up for utilities, and other purposes. You might be surprised by how many travelers on Hwy. 117 stop in and use the computers for directions. It's been very helpful to have them available to the public, and the library remains grateful to MAPA for funding the grant to purchase them. We’ve received many donations of books recently, and we’ve bought many as well, so stop by and see what’s new. If you’re a movie buff, we have well over 1,000 DVDs. Our children’s case contains movies rated G, our family case is where you’ll find the movies rated PG, and our general cases contain everything else, including documentaries and TV shows/series. It's an impressive collection. Library cards are free to all, regardless of where you live. Since we’re a true community library, run by a board of directors as a non-profit organization, we are not tied to the county system, so our rules can be more flexible. The Lookout Mountain Knitters continue to meet each Tuesday at 3 to enjoy knitting and crocheting together, often helping one another suss out a complicated pattern. They've also been helping newbies refine their technique. There's always a lot of laughter around the tables when they're there. Feel free to join them if you're interested. We are open Tuesdays and Thursday from 3–6 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. See you at the library! —Kelly Leavitt, community librarian
 Join your friends and neighbors for lawn games and other fun on the MERF Walking Trail next to the library on Saturday, July 20, at 1 p.m. If you’d like to enter a pie in the contest, you must pre-register by emailing [email protected] before 7/18.
 Join fellow book lovers on for a discussion of Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. Time magazine says, “Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders is catnip for classic mystery lovers… With its elegant yet playful plotting, Magpie Murders is the thinking mystery fan’s ideal summer thriller.”
The book club will meet on Saturday, July 20, at 10:30 a.m. at Moon Lake Community Library in Mentone (where the book is available for check-out). Everyone is welcome to join the discussion. Coffee and hot tea will be served. |