Today is Saturday and Friday was a very bad day…

Published on by Grace

 Isn’t there some children’s book about a very bad day? I should go look up that title. Perhaps I should have looked it up before writing this or I could edit this after I go look up the title but I won’t. 

(typing into search bar ‘children’s book with very bad day in the title’ – and the answer is…)

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. I never read it. It was published in 1972, I was 26 in 1972, so a bit old for a children’s book. 

I don’t remember any specifically children’s books from my early childhood – the only picture book I remember was a version of the Wizard of Oz.  Makes me wonder what I was reading as a three or four or five years old – because I was reading by the time I was 3 and I got my first library card when I was 4. The only criteria for getting a library card was being able to write your name. (And I am always surprised to remember that my mother, a major non-reader, actually took me to a library to get a card and probably took me there on a regular basis to get books.) 

When I was 10 /11-ish my father signed me up for the children’s book-of-the-month club but that didn’t last long. They sent books that were supposed to be reading level age appropriate but my reading skills were quite advanced and my father deemed the books insulting to my intelligence! He sent them a letter cancelling the subscription and the reason why. Thanks, Dad. (Really – thanks. Heaven forfend anyone would insult my father’s daughter’s intelligence!)

I still have two books from that time – The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek by Evelyn Sibley Lampman and Garden Under the Sea by George Selden. I also remember a biography of Mark Twain which I kept a long time but somehow it’s gone missing. I had already read a bit of Mark Twain so I remember being happy to get that book. Tho I do remember it as being a bit simple.

There are times when I am tempted to read those old books yet never do. I expect they will stay on the shelf until I die. But it would be interesting to try and figure out why I’ve kept them – out of all the books I’ve accumulated since childhood. 

I’ve been dumping books like crazy for the past 3 or 4 years – I expect the next time I move (if not before) I will dump some more and while for years I carted around 50-60 boxes of books I could probably winnow it down to maybe 6? (Standard moving book box is 12x12x12).

In other news – today, July 23rd is my husband’s 75th birthday. From today until October 17th we will be the same age – then I jump to being a year older. When he had a dj business, and I was attending one of his public gigs (as opposed to private party gigs), he would always play this song and dedicate it to me –
 
My husband can, on occasion, be a smartass.
(BTW – said husband is why Friday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.)

Links to Books Mentioned:
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,
The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek
Garden Under the Sea

11 thoughts on “Today is Saturday and Friday was a very bad day…”

  3. Wade was most always the reason for my terrible horrible very bad days. The only book I can remember specifically from when I was a kid was a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

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  5. Hope G had a happy birthday! Also hope the terrible horrible very bad day only lasted on Friday. As I mentioned on FB, I had one of those shitty kind of days on Friday too but it had to do with my mom. J drove her and Dolly back to Las Vegas on Friday and he flew back yesterday afternoon. There's much on my mind these days and I haven't said anything about it but oh boy it's getting real! Your talk of the library and children's books brought back good memories for me and I'm appreciative of that. My favorite times of childhood involved the library. I can still smell the books like it was yesterday!

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  7. Friday was a major shit day, this week is going to be shit squared – I'm tired, worn out and ready to pack it in. I didn't see anything on FB – perhaps you deleted it or perhaps I'm not of the list that sees those kinds of posts – Anyway, I know you don't want your Mom living with you, and I don't know how old she is but perhaps a 55+ community or a senior living (NOT a nursing home) community might be something to look into – most are pet friendly!

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  8. I think the reason we hang on to some of our older children's books as adults is that something is simply touching our emotions with them. Better times perhaps, greater escapes maybe? I have two books from my childhood that mean the world to me simply because l loved the story lines. One is Enid Blyton's Bimbo and Topsy, such a charming book, l haven't read that for a good few years now.. Published 1943, the last time l read it as an adult was probably 2016, and the first time it was read to me was by my mother in 1969 when l was six and living in Malaysia. The book l have is a reprint of the original and printed in 1969.The second book is Smoky Joe the Fish Eater written by John O'Grady originally published in 1972. I bought my copy an original from a library sale in Melbourne in Australia when l was nine. It is such a charming charming book about an abandoned cat that becomes a part time companion for a writer, it still makes me sad and l still tear up when l read it, but l do love the book. The last time l read it was 2017, l think l will read it again and Bimbo and Topsy too.These two books are prize possessions.Rory

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  9. I can't say that these are 'prized' possessions perhaps I keep them because they are the ONLY books I have from childhood. While we had books at home, none were particularly mine I was a big library user from age 4. My father was a dedicated reader, my mother was most definitely not, she sneered at me for always having my nose in a book, it's just that the books were not mine.

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