What is it about the library that makes it irresistable to young people in heat?
Today, while trekking across the Periodicals floor on my way to lunch, I came across a young couple lying full length on one of the couches, making out. He was on top with one leg between hers and she was firmly bonded to his face. I should add here that this couch is out in the open in full view of the public and not concealed in any way at all. The two took no notice as I approached. They took no notice as I hove to alongside their “love sofa”. They took no notice as my colleague, Lisa, approached from the opposite side of the floor and met up with me at this juncture of lust and furniture.
I was tempted at this point to whack them repeatedly with the rolled up Time magazines I was carrying, but I settled for saying “Excuse me, but the library doesn’t allow that sort of thing.” Lame and not as satisfying as soaking them with a bucketful of cold water, but it got them to unstick themselves.
This not the first time young lovebirds have chosen to roost in the library. I once came across a young couple that, for reasons best known to them, decided to lay down and rest spoon-fashion in the aisleway of the stacks, blocking any potential access to the books therein. People would have had to actually to step on, not over them, to proceed down the stacks. I rousted them both and, since I recognized the girl as a daughter of a colleague, ratted out the young lady to her mother.
At the back of the archives where I work, there are locked double doors, the kind with glass view ports in them. Once upon a time they led to the main staircase, but now they function as fire doors. My colleague, Anne, wasn’t surprised to see a couple come down the stairs–people often get lost–but she became puzzled when they didn’t return back up the stairs. Looking through the glass, she found them on the floor, making out. The partner on the bottom saw her peering in and the twosome vacated the premises hastily.
Maybe the U. of Arnor Library should take advantage of its apparent popularity among the exhibitionist set and start marketing ourselves as a romance destination.
Ah, to be young and …uh…”motivated” again.
When I was an undergrad long ago, I remember that the university library was thought to be a great place for heavy petting (especially the study carrels that used to be in their own mini-rooms…which, in recent years, the university got rid of for that very reason).
Of course, it was the Midwest and cold most of the time, so what else was there to do? Study? Pshaw!
Back when the junior Summer Fine Arts camp used to hold sessions on campus, one of my colleagues came across a group of twelve-year-olds who had elected to elevate their knowledge of the “arts” by playing strip poker in one of the grad study carrels. Because the walls of the carrel don’t go all the way to the ceiling, the sufficiently motivated can climb over the top of the doorway instead of using a key to open the cubicle. Being a mother of young children herself, my colleague, Karen J., evicted the wastrels with the appropriate amount of sturm and drang and reported them to camp administrators as well.