Low bridge, everybody down! BPL posts ‘Erie Canal’ pages along the lock

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

Older readers will recall the rhyming billboards for Burma-Shave’s brushless shaving cream that used to line the nation’s highways.

This fall, B’ville families can experience similar signs on a smaller scale with the Baldwinsville Public Library’s “Erie Canal” story walk.

The Baldwinsville Public Library has installed a story walk along Lock 24, ending at the Little Free Library. The featured book is Peter Spier’s “The Erie Canal.”

BPL has installed signs with the pages of illustrator Peter Spier’s “The Erie Canal” along Lock 24. The book is an illustrated version of Thomas S. Allen’s 1905 song “Low Bridge, Everybody Down.”

The story walk ends at the Little Free Library, where kids and adults alike can borrow books.

“A couple other libraries have done book walks. We thought this is good idea because the canal’s right there,” said BPL Director Meg Van Patten.

Van Patten said the Tully Free Library has its own story walk, and other libraries in the Onondaga County Public Library System are interested in the idea.

She said she has some ideas in mind for BPL’s next story walk.

“We are talking about trading them around,” Van Patten said. “That’s what we’ve always been about ever since the system was born back in 1962.”

BPL’s story walk will stay up through September and into October, or “as long as the weather cooperates,” according to Van Patten.