Life In The Office

This is actually old news, but what the heck, until The Office tosses the fans something, some kind of bone, over the summer break, it’ll have to do. Brian Baumgartner was in Scranton over the Memorial Day weekend. He was the guest of honor at a fundraiser for the Albright Memorial Library. You can read all about the planned festivities here.

The Albright Memorial Library  is one of the most architecturally striking buildings in Scranton. It is modeled after an early renaissance French chateau monastery, to which Michael Scott would roll his eyes and say “Blah, blah, blah… tell us a story.” OK, here’s my best memory of this place: My wife Ann graduated college with a teaching degree, and her first job was as a long-term substitute teacher in a Scranton school. After a few weeks on the job, we went to the Albright Memorial Library so she could gather new material to teach her 5th grade class. As Ann was searching for current events for her class, I noticed two young boys furtively watching her from behind the book stacks. They were trying to be sneaky, but it wasn’t working. These young whippersnappers were two of her 5th grade students, and obviously two of the more, uh… rambunctious “free spirits” in the class; I overheard one of them whisper to the other “Yeah, I’m sure it’s her… that’s old fartface.”

Ann was the ripe old age of 22 at the time! And I love the fact that of all the nasty things a kid could have said, “fartface” is actually just pretty funny. It’s… hmm… it’s actually kind of “Office-y,” don’t you think? A young Andy would have said that. Anyway, so there’s my most distinct memory of the Albright Memorial Library. Well, and now I know that Brian Baumgartner, aka “Kevin Malone” was a guest of honor at a fundraiser there. I like having that link to one of the best shows ever on TV. And I’ll take whatever I can get from “The Office” over the summer break.

And, as always, if anybody else has a Scranton story to share, you can post it in the comments here. That even includes the wiseguy that called Ann “old fartface.” We’d love to hear from you. I’ll bet you’ve got lots of great Scranton adventures.

~Bob