BOOKS & TEACHERS

BOOKS & TEACHERS   

      30 May 2015

   I love to read! Many places would be considered a good place for me to open a book and enter some other place in the world. It could be a chair that I curl up in, that has been placed strategically in front of my old Franklin Stove. It could be sitting in my porch swing at our cabin or waiting for an appointment in a Doctor’s office. Then of course it could be lying in bed trying to go to sleep at night.

   I am not really “picky” when choosing a book, but there are some I will not read and some I seem to devour in a couple of days and when I come to the end I wish it would go on longer.

   At the beginning of this BLOG on books, I must admit that I was not sure when I started reading, but I do remember (about) when. I was in Jr. High School or High School and I was encouraged by a wonderful English Teacher. Sadly I do not remember her name but I do recall exactly how it happened.

   One day she asked me if I would stay a few minutes after class to talk to her. Of course I thought I was in trouble and I could not think of why? However the conversation was not like I expected.

   She asked me how many books I owned. I indicated to her that I was not sure but I knew we had a few around the house. She then said, “No, I mean how many books do YOU own?”I supposed of course that she already knew the answer but I answered, “None.”

   Then she asked if I would do her a favor. Happy to please (and to find out I was not in trouble), I told her I sure would if I could. She asked me if sometime from that day hence, would I decide on a book and go buy it. It could be any book, but should be one I WANTED and not one my parents wanted me to read. Then would I read it and come back and tell her why I liked it? That sounded pretty easy so I told her, “Sure I would do that.”

   The book I chose was, “A Yank in the RAF.” As I recall it was not a big book, but it was about one of my dreams of flying, preferably as a pilot. I think I still have it stashed someplace in one of my “treasure storage boxes.” Yes, I have read it several times over the years and yes I did report back to the teacher on the book.

   Now of course I am not sure that it was this teacher that started me on my path to reading, but I have given her that credit for the past 70 years or so. It seems that under those circumstances it is a shame I cannot remember her name.

   Even so I will be ever thankful for that teacher and the fact that she was interested enough in me to kind of “force feed” me into becoming interested in reading books.

   When I started the Blog tonight I was thinking about books and reading and it seems I have, as I do many times, digressed a little. However I think Books and Teachers just naturally go together.

   The other thing that started me on thinking about Books and a Blog was one of my Grandsons. We were talking one day and I asked him if he liked to read? He indicated that he did, so we went on with a more in depth conversation. The upshot of the conversation was that books are a wonderful thing no matter how old you are.

   You can go almost anyplace, visualize almost anything and experience almost anything you want to with the help of a little book and a good Author.

   I have traveled quite a bit during my lifetime, but I have been places with a good book that I never would, or never will go, in person.

   From books I have some idea of things that went on in the past. I understand the hardships of settling the western part of the USA. I do not understand but I am more aware of the suffering of several wars in the past. I also have some idea of how people in other countries live, what they eat and what they do for recreation and even how some just get by from one day to another.

   As I said earlier, I can curl up by a warm fire on a cold winter day. I can sit on my porch on a warm summer day, or even just sit in the seat of my car while waiting for something else and if I have a good book I can be in some other place in the world, on my own for a short while.

   I do not know how many books I NOW own but it is a lot more than ONE. We have books stacked on every table and chest, closet & chair and any other place that is not being used to store something else. Several years ago I decided to keep a list of the books I have read and I think a good guess is there are 700/800 books in various places in our home and cabin. I hope that teacher is up above me somewhere and looking down and rubbing her hands and smiling.

   All of this because of a caring teacher who showed interest in one of her students and introduced him to READING A GOOD BOOK.