Still, the biggest events at school, considered by me to be red-letter days, were the ones that somehow involved the printed page: the day each week when the Weekly Reader arrived, the bi-weekly visit to the school by the public library's bookmobile (We lived in post-war subdivision, and our newly built school didn't have a library yet.) and the times twice a year when the teacher would hand out forms so we could order Scholastic books.
I grew up to be an English teacher (and later a school librarian). I will never give up the heft of a good book in my hand, and I have more magazine subscriptions than I need...but it's really nice for these old eyes to be able to adjust the font size on my Kindle.
Incidentally, yesterday I won a complete set of The Children's Hour books on eBay. I have such fond memories of the books from my childhood that I wanted my grandsons to have them too.
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| 1st grade primer mulibraries.missouri.edu |
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| SRA reading lab flickr.com - jonmankuta |
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| The Children's Hour set by Sears Roebuck that I won on eBay yesterday ebay.com - trimjbe |
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| Nancy Drew mystery books vampyvarnish.com |
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| Weekly Reader - March 17, 1958 dreamsofspace.blogspot.com |
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| Scholastic Book Club order form tatteredandlostephemera.blogspot.com |
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| Bookmobile day nutrias.org |
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| Teen magazine (Roberta Shore and Annette Funicello) whosdatedwho.com |
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| Mad magazine inkwellbookstore.blogspot.com |
What a great idea to share with your grand babies, your going to enjoy this very much!
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, there are some timeless stories and poems in the set that they will enjoy as much as I did, and, as they get older, I think they'll get a kick out of the fact that I had the same set.
DeleteOh great, now you've got the complete set of Children's Hour to read to your grandkids.
ReplyDeleteSRA! I've forgotten about those. One of my best experiences in school was working my way up the SRA reading program.
Isn't it interesting that we should count the SRA reading program as one of our best experiences in school? I was a well-rounded kid...played softball, showed horses, sang in the choir, took art lessons, participated in Girl Scouts, sewed and did needlecrafts...but my fondest memories are of school. I guess those memories often tell us who we are at heart.
DeleteNerds.
DeleteAnd I mean that in a good way!
Yes, I almost called us that myself...but really cool nerds. I was wild child in my day. I had four hard and fast dating rules in high school: Boyfriends couldn't be members of the National Honor Society (even though I was), and they had to drink, smoke and drive fast cars. I probably chose them to disguise the fact that I was such a schoolgirl to the core. I changed my rules slightly when I got to college. They could be smart. :)
DeleteThere's something cool about contradiction.
DeleteI keep joking that it's cool to be a nerd... as long as you don't look like one. ( :
I started reading when I was about 4. Burned through all the Dick and Janes quickly and kept going. On of my teachers told me I needed to slow down on the SRAs because I was reading 3 grade levels ahead so I just moved into the science fiction and historical fiction genres. Some pretty adult content in those historal fictions!
ReplyDeleteYes, I can remember a few teachers trying to slow me down too. As a retired teacher, I look back and realize that they were the lazy ones who didn't want to go to the trouble to find material to challenge me. The really good teachers let me go full speed ahead. Like you, I graduated to adult fiction and biographies at an early age. Luckily, my mom had good taste in fiction, and my dad was a history buff, so I never ran out of excellent reading material.
DeleteManaged to save all my Weekly Readers from 1963 to 1971, great to look back on those turbulent times.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's amazing. I bet it really does give you an interesting perspective on what was happening back then. How much was it toned down and sanitized for kids? And how much was left out altogether?
DeleteWow! I seldom can find Weekly Readers from that period. You have a great collection!
DeleteI'd have to go back and check again, but it covered the civil rights movement,Vietnam war, drug use and assassinations along with the space race, really a history changing time.
ReplyDeleteThat's really fascinating. I would have thought they might have candy-coated what was going on, but apparently they didn't.
DeleteI've started collecting Scholastic Book Services books. I used to love when my order arrived at school. Everything about them -- the size, the weight, the font, the colors, the graphics -- excites me. That's what I love so much about mid-century modern. It stimulates all of my senses!
ReplyDeleteI loved the Scholastic books too. I even loved poring over the order forms and trying to decide which ones I couldn't live without. I would have ordered them all if my parents had let me.
Delete