More Proof Things Didn't Suck
I got a book in the mail over the weekend. What a STORY!
First these kids are in school studying about wild Indians...
Then it starts to rain. And it rains and rains and rains and rains and rains...
It rains and rains like a mutha! Until the whole town is flooded and all the kids have to be sent home from school and the next thing you know people are being rescued off their rooftops by priests in boats and stuff!
And the Red Cross evacuates everyone to the next town over and then this happens and that happens and a little girl gets lost but is found and all the kids in the new town are white and friendly but everybody misses their own home town and so they wait and wait and freakin WAIT and WAIT for the floodwaters to go down and then when they finally go down everybody comes back and rebuilds the town.
Whew!
Yeah that's right - I found my 3rd Grade Reader first published in 1949 and I got it sent to me off ebay! I'm on page 219 - the part where the men are coming back to tell the people it is safe to go home!
Yay!
I'll let you know how it turns out, but I think everybody gets Blessed by a guy in a pointy white hat at the end.
I don't think he's from the Klan...
>5 comments:
At 9:20 PM,
sassyassy said...
I feel deprived. All I had was See Jane Run. See Spot Run. See Dick chase Jane and Spot.
Ebay is awesome, isn't it?
At 9:47 PM,
said...
What a treat.
Hey. Waaaaaait just a minute...Where are the reverential references to Government and it's role in protecting the lives of everyone everywhere from everything all the time?? And what about those characters in the book? Are any transgender/homosexual/mixed-race/illegal immigrant??? And the two children working together in the last illustration: Aren't they both boys??!! What about the role of strong female characters and single mothers? Where are they and how are they represented? The issue of religion in public schools is, of course, most obscene and I expect there is not a single reference--NOT ONE!!--to the atheist and non-Christian children. And while there are references abundant regarding the "Church", with the roles of "Priest" and "Sister" taking the place of a properly government-funded educational system, there again is no reference (NONE, I tell you! NONE!!) to the mosque and it's role in subjigating the non-believers and infidels to their correct place as second-class citizens. Perhaps the illustrations could be amended to show the tribal elders in their traditional garb? Why, that alone will bring the joy and peace of he who brings pe
BLAM!!
It's all right now, everyone. Go back about your business. We'll clean this mess up.
Dan Patterson
Arrogant Infidel
At 11:14 PM,
bobgirrl said...
My mother always told us not to run around like wild Indians.
At 5:31 AM,
RW said...
sassy - ebay is too cool, but I can't stay too long or I'd be totally broke and surrounded by junk!
Dan - I hear you, though in fairness it is a Catholic School Reader, and there are girls on the next page helping neighbors to replant their gardens - just didn't register in my universe.
bobgirrl - hmmm... didn't work, did it? :-)
At 6:17 AM,
said...
Mine was a lame (lame lame lame) attempt at biting sarcasm. I know better than to try to be witty when fueled by bourbon and a sense of one's own importance, but I am weak and couldn't help myself.
I have on my desk a First Grade reader from 1928, bought on our friend eBay where because of my weaknesses I cannot linger, Friends To Make recalls a time when boys and girls were growing up with an understanding of family and community, and shared experience. Like your Third Grade Reader, the stories and illustrations have no hint of troubled hearts and minds, there are intact and stable families and friends, and no forced associations with the ACLU, NAMBLA, or the cheerless troubled tribes that haunt the schools today.
My grandmother, born in 1898, used to remark that she felt sorry for people who didn't know what life was like when she was a little girl; born in the rural south with few resources and less hope, they didn't know better than to be happy.
Thank you for the reminder of childhood, and of a time before so much danger and evil entered our common experiences.
Dan
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