Classics Illustrated

I was over at Peta's Journal reading her post of a few days ago, about graphic novels and comics that illustrate fairy tales and fables, etc.



Which got me to remembering all the wonderful Classics Illustrated I read as a kid. (Not to mentions "regular" comics. I'm thankful my parents "let" my sister and me read comics. Reading is reading after all.) Anyway, I wish I still had those Classics Illustrated.


They were a great introduction to classic literature. Early on I mentioned reading Jack London's Call of the Wild, and the influence that had on me.


Here is a list of some of the others I remember reading. I went on to read most of the books these "comics" introduced me to. In some cases I can still see the illustrations in my mind's eye. It was a wonderful thing.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Last of the Mohicans, A Tale of Two Cities, Robinson Crusoe, The Three Musketeers, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, Man in the Iron Mask, Rip Van Winkle, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Food of the Gods, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince and Pauper, The Song of Hiawatha, The Time Machine, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, White Fang


There were many "Classics Illustrated Juniors" too, that illustrated fairy tales, legends and myths, like Rumplestiltskin, The Golden Fleece, Beauty and the Beast, and The Pied Piper, to name a few. And there was a series called "The World Around Us," which introduced me to Vikings, Indians and the Crusades.

Recently, at our little local library, I saw a graphic novel of The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is illustrated as a girl wearing jeans, living in a modern Kansas city. But (and?) I was pleased to see that the illustrators/authors were true to the original novel. If this is an indication of what is being done today, I say, "Way to go and keep up the good work."

Reading is reading. It's the heart and essence of the story that matters. If you can get a kid to read a classic that's been treated well in this manner, maybe, like me, that kid will go on to one day read the full text. If not, at least they've had a taste and certainly a taste is better than no taste at all.

What Erva Said about "My Visit to Bunnyland"

My sister, who has a memory like an elephant, can remember details of shared experiences that are lost to me. Here's what she said about "My Visit to Bunnyland."

And I refused to sit on the Bunny's lap! That picture, like all the Santa shots, was taken at the Emporium in San Francisco. This was one of Mom's favorite stores. Mom also loved the City of Paris, and Penny's was a staple - that's where your pink dress came from. At the same time, Mom bought me a blue one and we're in them at the last Thanksgiving Dinner in Castro Valley in 1955. It was a day or so later that we boarded thePasadena in Stockton - leg one of the journey to St. Thomas. How's that for a long memory? Of course, there's a lot more.

I wrote a little about our three week journey on the Pasadena in my blog entry called Arrival.

My Vistit to Bunnyland

This is a little girl who absolutely would NOT, ever ever sit on Santa’s lap. There was only one man in her life and that was Dad. The Easter Bunny, however, was all right with her. She was a lady.

I guess I felt safe with her.

I was about four and a half when this picture was taken. I still have the paper frame it came in, which reads, “My Visit to Bunnyland.” I remember the dress. It was my favorite dress. It was pale pink and had little white flowers embroidered all over it. The sash and bow at the neck were black velvet. You can’t see them, but I was wearing black patent leather shoes with little white shocks that had a little lace ruffle along the top edge.

I don’t remember the actual visit, or the picture being taken. I wonder what the Easter Bunny is saying to me. I wonder what I am thinking. I’m not looking at her; I’m looking at something/someone over her left shoulder. Maybe I’m looking at Mom or at the cameraman. But I seem a wee bit awed to be in her presence. There’s something in the tilt of my head, in my eyes, that suggests to me I may have been excited, but speechless. I love how the Easter Bunny has her left “paw” gently covering my hands where they rest in my lap, while her right holds me around the waist. I love how she is looking at me, right into my eyes. She is giving me her full attention.

What greater gift can any child receive than that; the full attention of the Easter Bunny, one’s parents, one’s family, one’s God, even when we’re distracted by something off to the side.

My Sister

My sister, Erva, and I have always been close. Well, except for that brief period of time (which seemed like an eternity to me) when she turned into the Alien Monster I didn’t know or recognize. (More on that later.)

Erva is four years older than me. She is my Rock of Gibraltar, my Amazon Warrior Princess, sword drawn, protecting my back. She is my faithful Samwise Gamgee. I have never called her “Sis,” though I do occasionally call her, “Erv.”

She is the third generation female to be named Erva, starting with Grammy, who was Erva Hartwell Boulon, then our mom, Erva Claire Denham, then her, Erva Augusta Denham. She was named Augusta after our Swiss step-granddad, August Braendlin. Pa was the only grandfather we ever had or knew.

Erva bears my mark. I accidentally sat down on her right foot and bent she little toe. To this day it sort of sits up on top of the toe next to it, not quite lying flat like it should. Of course, when it happened she howled in pain and was understandably upset.

She used to play horsy with me. She’d lie on her back, right leg crossed over left knee. I’d sit in the saddle made by her foot and ankle, her arms became my reins and she’d bounce me up and down.

Many were the nights, when we should have been sleeping, that we played 20 Questions. Sometimes we’d get the giggles so bad we couldn’t stop. Then Mom would appear out of the darkness and say something like, “Do you realize what time it is? You girls need to get to sleep. No more fooling around.”

We played a lot of board games; Parcheesi, Monopoly, Candyland, Snakes and Ladders (before it got renamed Shoots and Ladders. Why? Did snakes suddenly become too scary?)

We played a lot of card games; Gin Rummy, War, Go Fish, Old Maid, and our favorite, Canasta. I had this tendency to hold all my cards. Erva had this tendency to go out early. “Wait, wait!” I’d holler. “Let me lay down first…pulleeeeze?” Nine times out of ten she let me empty my hand as much as I could. I still lost most of the time. Gee, I wonder why?

We put a lot of jig-saw puzzles together. Many of them were done at night by kerosene lantern light. Colors aren’t true in the yellow light of a flame, one must rely more on shape. We got very good. To this day I love putting puzzles together.

We played stickball, marbles and jacks.

We went exploring together.

I don’t recall ever being bored. There was just too much to do.

This is the first picture taken of us. I am about six months old, Erva is four. She holding something in her hands, I don’t know what, it looks like a little basket. We are studying each other, eye to eye, getting acquainted and, so it looks to me, liking what we see.

This is my all time favorite picture of us. She is 12, I am eight. People thought I was around five because Erva was so tall. She was turning into the Alien Monster. She grew 6 inches in 6 months. Her bones and joints ached and she was tired all the time, she got clumsy and was anemic. This picture was taken in the early stages of her transformation. The day this picture was taken she wasn’t in a good mood, she wouldn’t smile for the camera. So there’s my left hand sneaking over to her ribs, tickling her. This is, perhaps, The Rotten Kid’s first appearance, captured on film. I love how I’m staring straight at the camera, there’s a mischievously innocent smile on my face. And Erva is frozen in time, in a spontaneous laugh.

Then…here we are a few months later. The transformation is complete. It is Erva’s 13th birthday. Note how small I am next to her even though I’m on the high side of the slope. She is the Alien Monster I don't know. I am looking down at the ground. My feet are crossed. Erva is staring somewhat gloomily at the camera. We are NOT happy campers.

Luckily for both of us, this phase in our lives didn’t last too long It left its impressions, sure, but no scars…just a few little dents which we can laugh about now.

No one dares to stand between us. Many is the time a fool has tried to take a side in an argument we two are having only to be turned on by both of us. We two, in the midst of our “discussion” will attack an interfering third party like a couple of lionesses. She and I can say what we want to each other, but no else can. No one else has earned that right. No one knows us quite in the way we know each other.

I am blessed and honored to share the same genetic material with her.

Happy Birthday, Erva. You have always been and will always be, the best sister in the world.

All my love,
Bish

A Random Thought

So, we’re supposed to “spring forward” sometime tonight or in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

I wish “they’d” make up their friggin’ minds! What time is it? Oh, you want an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day? Well then, get up an hour earlier, cause that’s all we’re doing when we set our clocks an hour ahead, which means, for someone like me who is up between 4 or 5 AM every morning that I’ll now be up between 3 and 4! GAK.

I so don’t like this messing with the clocks. I experience jetlag er…timelag for days. Here it is going on 7 AM and we’ve got this nice sunrise going on but tomorrow morning we’ll be waiting around till like 8 AM before it starts to get light! Jeeze! And then as the months go by I’ll have to be deal with it still being light out when I’m ready to go to bed.

Which reminds me of this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

Bed In Summer

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me on the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

The only good thing about it is now there will be a one hour difference between where I live and where my sister lives instead of two. So when I call her at seven PM my time it will be eight PM her time instead of nine.

A Random Thought

Another favorite Poem from Silver Pennies

The Elf and the Dormouse
By Oliver Herford

UNDER a toadstool crept a wee Elf,
Out of the rain to shelter himself.
Under the toadstool, sound asleep,
Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.
Trembled the wee Elf, frightened, and yet
Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.
To the next shelter — maybe a mile!
Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile,
Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.
Holding it over him, gaily he flew.
Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse — " Good gracious me!
"Where is my toadstool?" loud he lamented.
And that's how umbrellas first were invented.

How I used to giggle every time I read/recited this poem! I loved it then, I love it now, particularly the line, “Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.” That’s probably the line that introduced me to alliteration. If feels so cool tumbling off the tongue.

Uncle Sam's Camels

Between 1856 and 1866 the U. S. Army conducted an experiment which, though short-lived and interrupted by the Civil War, was a success.

Check out my article, “Uncle Sam’s Camels” in the March/April issue of Wee Ones.

http://www.weeonesmag.com/weeones/monthly6.html (Unfortunately the article is no longer available.)

I’m proud (and a little sad) to have been included in this last year of publication of a fine children’s magazine.

The pictures in the article, and those shown here, were taken by me at the 150th anniversary of the camels returning to Camp Verde. Most happily for me, Camp Verde is about six miles down
the road from where I live!







Camel crossing









Camels in front of the 150 year old Camp Verde General Store







Camel and me (they are very interesting and intelligent creatures)