|
EPILOGUE
After a little more than two years of use, the dictionary had become obviously well-used and well-loved. It had become an object to be given up under no circumstance. It was one of my best friends, traveling on vacations with me as far as Orlando on the band’s spring trip and to San Francisco on our family’s vacation. It also attended the National Junior Classical League 2004 Convention – a whole week long! – with me, cheering me on along with the rest of my friends as I competed in the lower level Certamen semi-finals.
It was a sad day when it came time to put it on the Classics-reserved shelf, where it remains to this day. In the weeks prior, it had been sent to the emergency room several times: to glue the cover back to the binding of the pages, tape pages back into their spot, retape pages back into their spot. The binding had swollen, no longer an inch thick, but perhaps an inch and a quarter. I finally accepted that its time had come, during tutoring one Friday: the cover I had just so recently glued on had torn off. All lamented who knew my dedication to this friend.
As hard as it was, that night, I went to look for a replacement. Borders, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Nobles, all to no avail. None had any copies of John C. Traupman’s fine edition of the Latin-English dictionary. All hail Amazon, the only one who would help me during my time of need! I waited the necessary two weeks for it to arrive, and it did, looking as all do, fresh off the bookstore’s shelves. I made the transition, with great sadness, the old, loved dictionary onto my bookshelf reserved for only books related to the Classics, and the new dictionary into the traditional spot in my book bag. I dedicate this story, the product of my obsession with Latin, to the memory of that old dictionary. Vale, glossarium suavissimum et vetus. Farewell, dearest old dictionary.
-KJ
November 2004
|
