48 to 50

Jul. 23rd, 2010 11:00 am
vanillafluffy: (Writing vs carpentry)
[personal profile] vanillafluffy
Being the baby of the family and the youngest person in the house, I was nicely spoiled by everyone. Maybe not to the extent children are spoiled today (wretched excess of the youngest generation!), if only because there were fewer Things to be spoiled with.

I remember very clearly playing in the cellar while Mom and Aunt Mary sat at a little table, had coffee and chatted. I wasn't surrounded by a slew of brightly colored toys, no, I had pulled pots and pans out of the cabinet next to the stove and was particularly enamored of her aluminum colander with its star-pattern of perforations and little indentations.

Another reason that memory stands out is, the cellar's kitchen changed not long after that. Right in the middle of the space was a steel pole. Heating? Electric? Support? IDK. At that time, there was a low partition around it, which was removed and the ingeneous and handy guys of the house built a round table to encircle it. It seated six comfortably.

The top was white formica over plywood, and there was a paneled, 4-sided box underneath it that slanted inward to offer maximum foot room. To dress up the pole, it was wrapped with half-inch tile. As this was the 60s, the tile was white, metallic gold, and mottled half-gold half-white.

Aunt Mary was an awesome cook. She was Italian, and when she started cooking, the whole house was a riot of garlic and tomatoes. As I grew up, I ate a good many meals at that table, bowls of pasta and meatballs with homemade spaghetti sauce topped with cheese that was bought by the block and grated into an old jar that was passed around the table.

While most of my toys were simple---a few stuffed animals, a Raggedy Ann, building blocks---my imagination wasn't limited. My mother read to me, things like the Little Golden Books...I remember "The Poky Little Puppy" and "The Little Engine That Could" in particular, but I'm also sure those weren't all; there were always books.

By a very young age, I had assimilated the fact that those little black squiggles on a page meanth STORIES. I didn't have the alphabet integrated yet beyond the song, maybe, but I have a very vivid memory of trying to write a story for myself.

My dad played golf, and there were always stubby little green pencils kicking around the house. I was sitting in the big green chair, one of those golf pencils clutched in my childish fist, scribbling on one of the 3x5" scratch pads that lived on the living room table by the phone. I remember being somewhat frustrated, because I'd look at my scribbles and try to tell myself the story, but they didn't translate the same way every time the way my printed storybooks did.

I don't remember anyone trying to teach me to read; I think after enough repetitions, I got to where I could figure out which group of symbols on the page meant which word, and I took it from there. I *do* know that I could already read and print when I began kindergarten.

And I've been writing ever since.


.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 03:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com
charming nostalgia! :)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 03:49 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 03:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com
Oh, this is wonderful. You describe the house so vividly that I could "see" that table in my mind.

I did that same thing with trying to teach myself to write. My dad read us Dr. Seuss books, and my brother and I could both read before we started to school.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 03:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Yes, silly me---"The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham" were also among the stories I absorbed. I had the Dr Seuss dictionary too, and a couple years after that I got the Spanish-language version for Christmas.

Being read to is so essential, I can't imagine NOT reading to a child, but I know that it's getting more and more rare. It's all TV and eBooks and techno toys---god only knows how ignorant youth is going to be in another 50 years!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 04:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hippediva.livejournal.com
Oh this was delightful! *G* And I'm right there with you re: the Golden Books (I still have my copy of the 12 Dancing Princesses! WISH I still had Little Engine and Pokey Little Puppy!!) And I think we learned to read exactly the same way! Thank you for sharing your memories!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 05:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Thanks. I don't have any of my original childhood books, but one of the first things I got when I discovered eBay was a copy of "The Golden Books Treasury of Elves and Fairies" with my very favorite story, "Singeli's Silver Slippers".

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 05:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cbtreks.livejournal.com
One of the women I work with (age 27) had never heard of The Pokey Little Puppy till I brought it up on conversation once. I was vaguely horrified, as I always considered it a childhood classic - one of those books everyone has had read to them at some point. Guess not anymore.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 05:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
And I'm sure there are young people who think the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat have only ever been cartoons. They don't read for themselves, much less their children. Reminds me of a former coworker who said the only time she ever turned on the news was to find out the weather so she'd know how to dress her kids. ?!?!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 06:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gwylliondream.livejournal.com
Oh, this was so sweet. I love the bit about the pole. That is just so weirdly random, I am amazed that you remembered such a thing! Really enjoying these entries!

XO
Donna

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 11:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
We lived there til I was almost 14, and I could still draw a blueprint of it.

I'm glad you're not bored! ;)

Maree

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 10:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
I had to laugh, especially, at your description of the formica. Was that shit ISSUED back then? I've even got something similar on my kitchen counters *here* (circa 1957)!

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 10:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
I think formica was in its infancy back then, sort of a DIY version of "Any color you want, as long as it's white". I should have also mentioned the peel and stick linoleum squares on the floor, which were white background with glittery metallic gold spots, kind of like Liberaci's gentically-engineered Dalmation.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-07-23 10:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foreverhermit.livejournal.com
*laughs hysterically*

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-04 05:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] karaokegal.livejournal.com
The golf pencils are a great detail. So specific in their difference from "normal" pencils. That's a very vivid image.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-08-04 06:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Probably why I remember it so well. Thanks for stopping by!

Profile

vanillafluffy: (Default)
vanillafluffy

September 2023

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags