HITTY COMES HOME Barbara Berti was 10 in 1969 when her mother bought her a book about a century-old wooden doll. Berti quickly fell in love with Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, a novel by Rachel Field that had been published 40 years prior and won the Newbery Medal for excellence in children’s literature in 1930.

“It really is a very sweet story,” Berti said. “A wood carver makes her out of mountain ash and gave her to a little girl in Maine whose father was a sea captain and was away from home.”

The book goes on to describe Hitty’s (short for Mehitabel, a Biblical name) adventures as she passes from one owner to another over the course of 100 years, landing in a variety of places, including Boston, New Orleans and as far away as India. At one point Hitty was even owned by Charles Dickens!

As it turned out, at the time, the Mt. Lebanon Public Library featured the book — and a replica of the doll — on a display stand in the children’s section. Berti was captivated. Library Director Betty Anne Stroup noticed.

“I don’t know if I asked Ms. Stroup for the doll, or if she just saw me staring at it, but she asked me if I wanted it,” said Berti, who was pretty thrilled to take the doll home.

“She was a very nice woman,” said Berti of Stroup, who died in 2009 at age 85, after serving 22 years as library director, retiring in 1988.

Berti took Hitty with her when she left her Jefferson Drive home for college, and Hitty accompanied her to D.C., Maryland and Virginia. When Berti returned to Mt. Lebanon this year to help plan and attend her 50th high school reunion, she brought Hitty along with her to see if the library’s current director, Robyn Vittek, would have room for the peripatetic doll.

“I’m just grateful they took her back,” Berti said. “Now Hitty is back where she should be.”

FREE ADMISSION  We get that taxes can be a pain, but honestly, the Regional Asset District (RAD) idea is pretty genius. Pennsylvania has a 6 percent sales tax. In 1994, Allegheny County tacked on an extra penny, with the idea that a quarter of the extra revenue would go to the county, another quarter would be split among all the municipalities, with a formula calculated to favor distressed communities, and the other half would help fund the things that make the region special. Since its introduction, the RAD tax has brought in more than $5 billion (yeah, with a B).

If you have a valid library card, you can reserve a free or discounted pass to visit the venues that receive RAD funding. Passes are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Among the places that offer the RAD Pass: The Warhol Museum, Children’s Museum, Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, Fort Pitt Museum, Kamin Science Center, Mattress Factory, MCG Jazz, Phipps Conservatory, the National Aviary, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Sen. John Heinz History Center. Visit radpass.org to see what’s available.