The following is the continuation of a series in which I interview staff members of Topsham Public Library.
Dale is one of the few staff members who is a Topsham native. He was born here, he went to school here, and he works and lives here. Topsham is his home, and we are glad to have him. Dale is one of our technical wizards, but before he went into computers, Dale was a History major, so it is no surprise that one of his favorite books is Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.
Upon meeting Dale, it will not take you long to realize he is a sports enthusiast. He is up on whatever sport is in season, but hockey is his absolute most favorite sport and the Boston Bruins is his favorite hockey team. Football is a close second in Dale’s favorite sport category, and in the Peyton v. Brady match-up, he chooses Peyton.
What I find interesting is that though hockey is his favorite sport, when I asked Dale if he could invite any eight people in the world to dinner who would they be, he chose eight basketball players. In no particular order Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kareem Abdul-Jabar would make his invite list. Knowing this, when asked if he would prefer to be 4’6″ or 7’7″, it is only natural that he answered 7’7″.
Dale always has snacks on hand. If you could peak behind the circulation desk while Dale is working, you would invariably see a bag of chips open beside a bottle of Dr. Pepper. The type of chips may change, but there will always be a Dr. Pepper on hand – a Cherry Coke will never be a welcome substitute – he’s a Pepper through and through.
Food is important to us all, and some of Dale’s preferences are pizza over a burger, BBQ sauce before honey mustard sauce, bacon over sausage, fried eggs instead of scrambled, and vanilla instead of chocolate. The only cake he’s interested in is an ice cream cake – best of both worlds: cake and ice cream all mashed into one.
If Dale could have a super power, he would prefer to be invisible than be able to read minds. He would also choose to run at one-hundred miles per hour than fly at ten miles per hour (I must confess, that would be a very difficult decision for me). And Dale would rather have a dragon than be a dragon – another difficult decision. But since Dale isn’t a super hero, although it feels like he’s one when he helps everyone with their tech questions on Wednesdays from 1-3pm, he would prefer Iron Man, not Captain America, to come to his aid.
PC over Mac, night owl not an early bird, Bourne over Bond, book before ereader, mountains over ocean, snowboarding instead of skiing, and android over iPhone are some of the other choices Dale made. Some of the questions were easier than others for him, but it was not a difficult question to answer when I asked him if he was not a staff member at the Topsham Public Library what would he like to be doing, his answer was almost immediate when he said an archaeologist in Egypt or Rome.