When I was a very young child, back in the days before television, what did we do for entertainment? At the end of the day when the chores were done, we gathered in the living room and Mom read to us. Believe me, nothing much beats sitting with Dad and my brothers and sister, a thunderstorm pounding the roof, and listening to Mom’s quiet voice taking us to amazing places on exciting adventures. Books have always been important to my family and me. Mom’s children and many of her grandchildren grew up to love books and I think our early introduction to them through her reading to us was the reason.
Dad’s favorite story was a western, so much of what we heard were books by Zane Grey. As I branched out, reading on my own, I enjoyed the Albert Payson Terhune books, the Thornton W. Burgess books, Understood Betsy, Nancy Drew, Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, and many, many others. My younger brother and I read comic books too. Mom screened those because some were pretty weird and tended to cause nightmares in impressive children (me).
In Tahlequah, there was a store across the street from my Aunt Georgia’s Cochran Grocery, that sold or traded comic books. My brother Richard and I would trade two comic books that we had read for one that we hadn’t read. To us, that was an exciting part of going to town on Saturday.
How far back was that, those days before television when a book was so important? Well, actually, that’s a part of my past I’ve brought with me into the present and I’m so glad!
My brothers and I were blessed to be raised in a book-loving, storytelling home, too! And you named some of my favorite reading, too! My daughter’s middle name is Anne…spelled with an “e”! : )
Comic books, I still have a couple for fun! : )
I always enjoy your posts, thanks!
I think we are birds of a feather, Fran. Thanks for writing.
Paul has told us several times that the best thing we ever did for him was teach him to love to read. He would prefer to read or play music and doesn’t own a television. At least we did one thing right! 🙂
I’m sure you and Tim did a lot of things right. it’s great that Paul loves to read. So does Matt and so do his children. Reading is a priceless gift to be handed down to generations.