What shaped you?

 

When I was very young, around three years old, my father defended a doctor who'd been caught performing illegal abortions here in Ohio.  Dad's career as a lawyer was pretty new in those days.  And the doctor was bankrupt.  He couldn't pay dad for getting him off (which he did)

So the doctor gave him his family library in payment.

Some of my earliest memories are of dad bringing in a load of already measured boards and nailing them into bookshelves that covered the entire north wall of the living room.  Enough shelving for 1000 books.  I helped!  I held the hammer.

Recently, I installed so much shelving in my current home that I could put those books on shelves, along with my own collection.  Much of that doctor's library had slipped from my memory.  But I'm now realizing how much it shaped me to have stuff like this around whilst I grew up:

It's not a simple one-to-one.  Neither of my siblings became obsessive bibliophiles, let alone writers.  But I know it had a lot to do with making me who I am, for good or ill.

Look at your past.  Show us what shaped you!

AlextheKay has over 70 feet of floor-to-ceiling shelves, all filled.