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Kerry's picture
Wed, 2007-10-10 15:33 - Kerry

This past winter I read some very disturbing material, and chose to take it out on myself.  I banged my head on the kitchen floor three times.  I remember wanting to hear a <splat> sound.  Instead my dog, Bailey, came between my chest, and the floor, and stopped me from banging my head some more.  Hub-man watched the entire time. He knew why I was I was so upset, yet he sat, and did nothing.  I suppose he thought I had gone crazy.  No.  I was mad as hell and sick of the lies he and "they" kept hiding from me. 

For weeks I was rendered speechless, and my writing and ability to read was really messed-up.  I went for testing and placed on anti-inflammatory medication and then given migraine medication to help with the pain.

I could watch videos and listen to music... (that's what inspired the you-tube section here on PPL).  My children would draw pictures for me, and hang them on my bedroom wall, and I would have them tell me about those pictures.  Their stories would make me smile, because they were told with such love, and they always included me in those stories.  I loved that.  It reminded me of when I was little... yet when I was little, I used to read alone, in my room.  I always remember being alone when I was reading.  Many of the stories I read as a little girl made me sad, too.... but I realize now, they were sad because I was reading them alone.

I still have a difficult time remembering things, as a result of the head injury, but I am so thankful no real damage has resulted.  True I can't count numbers to save my life, but I can work on that with my kids (we can do homework together).

Some of my sad-turned glad books from childhood are easy-to-read books that my twins LOVE because they are silly, they have animals, and they all end happily.  I will add them to the "We Read" list, but I'll mention them here because I'm curious if there are other parents who have favorite books they like to read to their children, because their children really respond well to them (?).  The first three mentioned are from my own childhood, the second two books are from the same author (Kevin Henkes).  My oldest daughter, Alexa, LOVED his books when she was little, so we have have his entire collection.  I mention these two because they cover both genders, quickly and easily, and give beautiful example how fun his books are to read to little ones.

The Five Pennies

Are You My Mother?

The Diggest-est Dog

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

Owen

 

Comments

Thu, 2007-10-11 14:48 — neophyte

The Peanuts Gang

When I was little I used to love reading Charlie Brown books, and I always looked foward to the CBS specials, "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and  "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

Snoopy and Pig-Pen were my favorites!

 

Fri, 2007-10-12 02:25 — Kerry

About the Author

It just so happens, Newsweek recently printed an article on the man behind the cartoon-characters.  "The Good and The Grief"

You write that Schulz created a myth of his childhood as one where no one noticed the “bland, stupid-looking kid,” as he described himself, but in reality “the authority figures of his childhood recognized Sparky as exceptional.” Why did he cling to the myth?
For a boy who grew up as he did [the son of a barber] to achieve what he did ... Ordinariness is how he lived his life. He had to back it up, including by telling everyone he was a loser. So he created this myth that he’d been put down, misjudged.

Another myth Schulz created about himself was that as a child, as he put it, “I don’t know what it was, but I certainly was not happy and carefree.” He also remembered that it was “almost impossible to go to the playground and enjoy yourself without some older, bigger kid coming and spoiling it,” and he talked about “kids that push you down and knock you over.” But none of his childhood friends back that up.
I just couldn’t find it.

No one remembered any bullying. But with Sparky, it’s a sense of being abandoned, a fear of abandonment, that he’s talking about. When he rode the streetcar with [his mother] Dena, he was afraid that as more and more people got on at the stops, and crowded in between her and him, that she would get off without him. He struggled all his life with a package of anxiety, a sense of abandonment and of not being loved. His expression of that aloneness was continual, and in interviews he often said he felt alone—which is a strange remark for someone with five children. But for Sparky, it was a powerful myth, and very effective. Everyone I talked to said he was fun and funny, that he loved life, but it was complicated because he’d draw close to someone and then pull away. His children talk about how he never hugged them. On his honeymoon [with his first wife, Joyce Halverson, in 1951], he said to Joyce, “I don’t think I can ever be happy.” It wasn’t so much a prediction as a choice.

Fri, 2007-10-12 06:05 — tina

I discovered the magic of

I discovered the magic of books when I was eight. I was in hospital (nothing major) and my class at school had a whip round. They brought me colouring books and pens and a book called Gobbolino the Witches Cat. I must of read it from cover to cover until it fell apart. I don't think I had ever actually read a book on my own before then. I loved it. I just got lost in it. I think I must be the only person on the planet to have read it because I have yet to find anyone who remembers it ha ha. From Gobbolino I moved on to Enid Blyton, Naughty Amelia Jane being my Favourite (I modelled myself on her). I have got nearly all my Enid Blyton books (mostly bought from car boot sales) and tried to get my kids interested in reading them when they were younger but they were having none of it!
My kids call me the geek because of my books. I will give anyone anything but ask to borrow a book and you have less than no chance of getting one from me. Writing this has  made me realise just how possessive I am about my books. I'm not possessive about anything else!  Eeek! I'm ending this post now before I end up trying to analyze the whys' and wherefores and the meaning of life!

Fri, 2007-10-12 10:13 — Niels

Non-selective

I started reading at the age of six, the start of primary school. For some reason I had never wanted to learn to read or write any earlier, couldn't even spell my own name. The moment I learned to read and write I was sold, though. I don't remember what books were my favorites at the time and even if I would know it didn't mean a thing to the readers here, those books being in Dutch. Ever since I've been an avid reader, not only books, but just about everything, from magazines, to news papers, to road signs and advertizement posters. As long as there are letters, I read. In that sense I am totally non-selective. I don't mind if an article is about science, politics, arts or the latest fad in Royal marriages.