One of my favorite cartoons features a little girl, sitting on the floor with a book in her lap. “Finally”, she says, “the alphabet is paying off.”
Out of the mouths of babes:)
According to the family archives, some of the first words I learned were the names of my favorite cowboys, Roy Rogers & Gene Autry. Well, of course!
Classic Comic Books were readily available at my grandfather’s drugstore &, for me, they were free! I loved helping the magazine man spread the new issues out on the display shelf.
The Public Library, a Carnegie Library, was just a block away, & I loved choosing new titles for myself, bringing them home & reading them, at leisure, for pleasure.
And you?
I remember the comic books, but for me, it was not about reading them but having the perfect spot to watch my grandfather.
I remember that feeling of perfect peace, sitting there in that window seat, knowing I was safe, knowing Grandfather was watching me.
I remember a book of fairy tales..a red book..and Black Beauty. I remember the huge Life books about World War 1 and 2 at our aunt’s house. Sitting with those books on my little lap, wondering at the horror there, for some reason I was mesmerized by them.
Now, I think I am a reader, but really, it does not hold sway to the fact that I like the idea of books but would rather go for a walk!!!
You must have been so disappointed that I wanted to play computer games instead of read. But you know, I could say the same nostalgic things about the silicon wafer that you say about the alphabet. I guess the alphabet is an invention, not a discovery, but it is an invention with which one can do many amazing things.
I just played a computer game with Mike T.