KANSAS CITY, MO — Ralph Goodrich, a Kansas City, Missouri, man has been given an endless array of knowledge after getting his first ever library card.
“It’s sort of like a credit card, it gives me access to all of this,” Goodrich, 84, said.
Goodrich is now starting a new chapter in his life.
“I always heard about people reading books, and they had to be page turners or whatever that is, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a page turner,” he said.
Goodrich, a frequent visitor of the Kansas City Public Library - Waldo Branch, says he chooses his books carefully.
“Well, I'm pretty well focused on mystery books,” he said.
Goodrich says he enjoys mystery books because there is a particular author and story line that he can relate to.
“A specific author would be John Sanford, and the reasons I like him is that one of his characters in 12 of his books are headquartered in Mankato, Minnesota," he said. "Which is the town nearest where I grew up, and so he traveled around southern Minnesota and I traveled around southern Minnesota growing up."
As a child, Goodrich says he never had the chance to hand pick a good read.
“ I grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota," he said,” So, there was never any spare time for reading, but the closest library I guess would be one that’s 25 miles away.”
Ralph discovered his new found love for reading during the pandemic.
His wife recognized how frequently he was reading and decided it would be best to get him a library card for his birthday on July, 4, 2022.
“So, she would take them to the library and bring me some other stuff, and so she said, 'I think I'll just get you a library card so you can do this yourself,'" Goodrich said. "Well, good thing she didn’t know that it will be my first library card."
Goodrich is turning a new page, with his first ever library card .
“This is a new experience,” he said. "[It's my] First one in 84 years, it’s kind of cool I guess.”
However even at his age, Goodrich said he now has the key to an array of knowledge
“It’s fun to have and it fits into my bill fold and it’s a step forward,” he said.
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