Threads:
A
Literate Six-Year-Old
Added
to site July 27, 2016 |
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My
grandmother Emma Buckingham
kept a couple of letters that I (prompted by my mother) wrote to her
in 1953.
MARCH
3, 4:14 PM
DEAR
GRANDMA:
JUST
BACK HOME FROM KINDERGARTEN. OH, YOU MADE JUST ENOUGH
COOKIES. THERE WAS ONLY THREE LEFT! HEY
MOTHER THOUGHT THAT THERE WAS GOING TO BE MORE LEFT. AND THE
THREE WERE BUNNIES.
In
my kindergarten class, we were preparing an operetta
to be presented on April 17 on the big stage in the high school
auditorium. The teacher, Georgia Cramer, had decided that since
I had learned to read I should demonstrate that skill, rather than
simply portraying a nursery-rhyme character like everyone else.
I would be the Secretary. Unsure how to spell that word, in my
letter I resorted to an abbreviation.
FOR
THE OPERETTA, INSTEAD OF MY PART, IM A SECY. THAT
MEANS THAT I READ THE CHARACTERS NAMES OFF. AND SHE WANTS ME TO
WEAR MY NEW SUIT, SHIRT AND BOW TIE. THE TAILOR WILL HAVE IT
READY TO WEAR SUNDAY. ALL HE HAS TO DO IS SHORTEN THE PANTS AND
TAKE ONE INCH OFF ONE SLEEVE.
LOVE,
TOMMY THOMAS.
P.S.
SNOW IS ALL GONE.
I
somehow managed to avoid wearing the bow tie. I may still have
this red plaid one in a drawer somewhere.
The
teacher wrote my script, including a Roll Call listing
22 characters and groups to be introduced. My fathers
bookkeeper typed the text and put it in a ledger book for me.
It
originally placed the scene at the Convention Hall.
Perhaps that detail was suggested by the Republican and Democratic
National Conventions televised the previous July from Chicago.
However, at the was replaced by on the lawn
of because our stage backdrop depicted not a meeting hall
but a sunny wooded lakeside.
Anyway,
here's my report. |
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Secretarys
Report.
The
1952 annual Convention of the Children of Mother Goose met in the
House That Jack Built in the land of Make Believe.
The
president, Jack Spratt, called the meeting to order. The
secretarys report was read and accepted without
corrections. A business session was held at which time the
following officers were elected for 1953:
President
King Cole
Mother
of Storyland Mother Goose
Place
of the 1953 Convention to be in Toytown at
the on the lawn of Convention Hall,
the date to be April 17, 1953.
Many
other items of interest were brought before the convention,
including the questions of Who Killed Cock Robin? and
Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be?
The
convention closed in order.
Respectfully
submitted,
DOCTOR
FOSTER
Secretary
Doctor
who, now? I didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that
Doctor Foster is himself a nursery-rhyme character,
better known in England than here in America. His little poem
works better if you use the native pronunciations I've added in brackets.
Doctor
Foster
Went
to Gloucester [Gloster]
In
a shower of rain.
He
stepped in a puddle [piddle]
Right
up to his middle
And
never went there again [agayne].
Im
told
this refers to a royal visit to Gloucester around the year 1300.
We make the assumption (for which there's rhyme but no reason) that
Doctor Foster refers to the learned King Edward I, who
arrived during a storm and, mistaking a shallow puddle for a
deep ditch, steered his horse in that direction. Both horse and
rider became trapped in the mire and had to be hauled out.
Infuriated and no doubt embarrassed by the humiliation, he vowed
never to return to the town.
It's
claimed that this rhyme is useful in teaching children the valuable
lesson that one ought to mind where one steps, lest a piddle prove to
be deeper than it appears.

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Pogo,
May 10, 1970. Churchy serenades Miss Mamselle with
my character's story, but she's less than thrilled.
WHY
YOU NO MAKE THESE SONG MORE SENTIMENTAL?
THE KIND OF SONG I LIKE IS THESE ROMANTICAL BALLADS.
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That
summer, I wrote my grandmother again to let her know we had safely
arrived home from her place. However, we had interrupted our
120-mile journey with a dinner break 18 miles short of our
destination, so that when we reached the house Mother didnt
have to cook.
JULY
27, 10:30 AM
DEAR
GRANDMA:
WE
GOT HOME ALL RIGHT. WE ALSO STOPPED AT BUNS RESTAURANT,
DELAWARE. WE HAD CORN-ON-THE-COB, CHICKEN & MASHED
POTATOES. ALSO ICE CREAM & WATERMELON.
JOHN
T. SEAMANDS FROM S. INDIA, AT FIRST
METHODIST CHURCH (WEDNESDAY), GAVE US A NINE-INCH LION.
Buns
(at right) is a landmark restaurant thats been in business in
Delaware, Ohio, since 1864.
The
photo is by the late John Holliger, like me a member of the Oberlin
College class of 1969.
The
lion, as I recall, was actually a carving of a sleek
prowling black panther on a wooden base. |

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My
uncle Jim, Emmas son, was now working for my father. His
wife Virginia had been limping recently.
I
SUPPOSE YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT VIRGINIAS LEG. WELL!
ITS ALLLLLLLL RIGHT NOW.
ITS
AWFULLY HOT TODAY. BYE.
X
X X
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