Anne with an E & Other Old Friends

It is raining today, and that's the perfect excuse for curling up on the sofa to read a good book or watch a favorite movie--one that's been read or watched so many times, it's as comfortable as my old beige sweater, the one that belonged to my mother. 

I bought a weathered paperback copy of Anne of Green Gables at the GW (Goodwill) a few weeks ago. But, instead of reading it today (with only four hours of sleep last night), I think I'll pull out my old VHS videos instead.  Should I nod off and wake in the middle, it's so familiar I can quickly pick up the story line again.  I wish my mom was still alive to watch with me.  She loved Anne (with an e) almost as much as I do. 

My love of reading came from her...from nursery rhymes and fairy tales, the Boxcar Children, Man O' War, the Black Stallion series, and every other horse book in the elementary school library.  Other old friends are the characters from Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Anne of Green Gables, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and the Secret Garden.  Although we didn't have much money, I had subscriptions to Highlights and Calling All Girls magazines.  I'm not sure where we got them, but I spent hours poring through an old set of Childcraft Encyclopedias.  In the 1980's, my oldest son spent hours studying the Statue of Liberty, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and President John F. Kennedy in our World Book Encyclopedias.  The books were looked at so often, the pages would automatically fall open to his favorite subjects.

I have a book that was a gift to my mother from an elementary school teacher, inscribed with a note encouraging her to continue reading.  It's an obscure title, "Cornelli, Her Childhood" by Johanna Spyrie, author of Heidi.  The cover is off, and it's held together with rubber bands.  Mom read it to me as a child.  It's the story of a sullen child who, because of her constant frowning, was convinced she had horns growing out of her forehead.  When I was disciplined and pouted, I remember being told, "You'd better watch out, your face might freeze like that!" or "If you stick your lip out any further, you're going to step on it."  I guess these hyperboles were parents' reminders to "straighten up" your behavior.   

Although she couldn't have realized it at the time, my mom's teacher's encouragement to keep reading now reaches out to another generation.  My granddaughter Madi, at five, is already a lover of books.  We are, after all, kindred spirits.



Copyright 2011 Charlotte Laney