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From my elder cousin, Celia, to me, to my younger cousin, Max...
When I was very young (less than 10 years old, maybe? -- I was at a very advanced reading comprehension level for my age), my cousin, Celia, gave me several boxes of her old books. Celia is about 10 years my senior. They were in great condition - just had her name written in them on the fly leaf of most of them. I read those books, and I and treasured them... 'til now, actually. They were the standard classics: Charlotte's Web, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Anne of Green Gables, White Fang, Little Women, Moby Dick, Jane Eyre, Mutiny on the HMS Bounty, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver's Travels, Little House on the Prairie... etc. OMG! I can't recall 'em all right now, but they're all up in my attic - in the same exact boxes in which I received them from Celia, so long ago, circa 1970.
I read all of these ^ books. And I loved them all. I love my books - every last one... which is why my house is <span style="font-weight: bold">crammed full</span> of bookcases and book shelves <span style="font-weight: bold">chock full</span> of books!! I never can give up any of my books. lol
Sooo... at the Break Fast this Yom Kippur, last week, it hit me like a brick wall tumbling down upon me! I had been cleaning out my attic for the past few weeks, and pondering who I should give my beloved childrens' books to... who would appreciate them and love them like I do? Who will keep them nice and treasure them as I did, as Celia did? Who will hold on to them, keep them nice, and one day, finally pass them on to another generation, with the teaching to do the same - to keep passing them on as a family legacy? Who??? I don't have any children! What to do with these beloved books?! Celia has no children, and - like me - shall never have any. It wasn't in God's plans for either of us to have our own children, alas! Her brother... well, never mind - big, really bad family rift, and there's no going there, suffice it to say that his kids won't ever be permitted to take a gift from Celia or from me. I was watching my cousin, Jeff's, son, Max, attempt to play my big harmonica (the one that I'd just acquired), after supper... we were all having coffee. And I realized that Max was 10-ish... he's in 4th grade. He's particularly advanced, as I was... Why not give my beloved books to Max?! After all, Celia is Jeff's first cousin - not mine! Jeff is my first cousin. Celia and I aren't really actually cousins, but we were raised to consider each other cousins. My father's brother is Jeff's father; Jeff's mother's sister is Celia's mother. My dad's brother, my Uncle Ed, married my Aunt Shirley, whose sister I call Aunt Bernice... but, of course, Aunt Bernice and Uncle Charlie aren't really related to me at all! Celia is Aunt Bernice's and Uncle Charlie's daughter. No blood or marital relative of mine... And I never really understood why I received Celia's books, and not Jeff. I'm only a few months (6 months) older than Jeff; we're essentially the same age. OK, I got her Barbie dolls, and some of her best clothes - the clothes I really wanted, because I didn't need hand-me-downs. Jeff wouldn't want those. lol I got Celia's books - dunno why??
So, I spoke up and asked Jeff and his wife if it was OK with them for me to offer my old beloved childhood books to Max. They were ecstatic! Max was over the moon! Celia couldn't believe that I still had her old books. Aunt Bernice was shocked. Absolutely shocked! Aunt Shirley and Uncle Ed - and my parents - just smiled; they know how much of a packrat... OK, a hoarder... I really am. dwl
So now I have to catalog the books, dust 'em off, and get a man to carry 'em all downstairs to the front hall... and load them up into Babycakes... and drive down to Philadelphia. They're all going to my little second cousin, Max. And Uncle Ed, who gave me Babycakes - a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Brougham special edition sedan, brand new off the showroom floor - when I got my driver's license, in 1980, will have the opportunity to once again drive my Babycakes. Uncle Ed hasn't driven Babycakes for... think it's about 16 or 17 years now..... and it was the day he bought the car before that. :-)
When I told Max he could have my beloved books, and that he had to keep them in good condition so that he'd be able to pass them on to his children some day -- he told me that he was going to do that, but he wanted me to sign my name in each book first, before I gave it to him. I think I'm gonna get writer's cramps! :-/
I said to Max, "So it goes."
His reply, "And on, and on, and on, forever, God willing."
When I was very young (less than 10 years old, maybe? -- I was at a very advanced reading comprehension level for my age), my cousin, Celia, gave me several boxes of her old books. Celia is about 10 years my senior. They were in great condition - just had her name written in them on the fly leaf of most of them. I read those books, and I and treasured them... 'til now, actually. They were the standard classics: Charlotte's Web, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Anne of Green Gables, White Fang, Little Women, Moby Dick, Jane Eyre, Mutiny on the HMS Bounty, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Swiss Family Robinson, Gulliver's Travels, Little House on the Prairie... etc. OMG! I can't recall 'em all right now, but they're all up in my attic - in the same exact boxes in which I received them from Celia, so long ago, circa 1970.
I read all of these ^ books. And I loved them all. I love my books - every last one... which is why my house is <span style="font-weight: bold">crammed full</span> of bookcases and book shelves <span style="font-weight: bold">chock full</span> of books!! I never can give up any of my books. lol
Sooo... at the Break Fast this Yom Kippur, last week, it hit me like a brick wall tumbling down upon me! I had been cleaning out my attic for the past few weeks, and pondering who I should give my beloved childrens' books to... who would appreciate them and love them like I do? Who will keep them nice and treasure them as I did, as Celia did? Who will hold on to them, keep them nice, and one day, finally pass them on to another generation, with the teaching to do the same - to keep passing them on as a family legacy? Who??? I don't have any children! What to do with these beloved books?! Celia has no children, and - like me - shall never have any. It wasn't in God's plans for either of us to have our own children, alas! Her brother... well, never mind - big, really bad family rift, and there's no going there, suffice it to say that his kids won't ever be permitted to take a gift from Celia or from me. I was watching my cousin, Jeff's, son, Max, attempt to play my big harmonica (the one that I'd just acquired), after supper... we were all having coffee. And I realized that Max was 10-ish... he's in 4th grade. He's particularly advanced, as I was... Why not give my beloved books to Max?! After all, Celia is Jeff's first cousin - not mine! Jeff is my first cousin. Celia and I aren't really actually cousins, but we were raised to consider each other cousins. My father's brother is Jeff's father; Jeff's mother's sister is Celia's mother. My dad's brother, my Uncle Ed, married my Aunt Shirley, whose sister I call Aunt Bernice... but, of course, Aunt Bernice and Uncle Charlie aren't really related to me at all! Celia is Aunt Bernice's and Uncle Charlie's daughter. No blood or marital relative of mine... And I never really understood why I received Celia's books, and not Jeff. I'm only a few months (6 months) older than Jeff; we're essentially the same age. OK, I got her Barbie dolls, and some of her best clothes - the clothes I really wanted, because I didn't need hand-me-downs. Jeff wouldn't want those. lol I got Celia's books - dunno why??
So, I spoke up and asked Jeff and his wife if it was OK with them for me to offer my old beloved childhood books to Max. They were ecstatic! Max was over the moon! Celia couldn't believe that I still had her old books. Aunt Bernice was shocked. Absolutely shocked! Aunt Shirley and Uncle Ed - and my parents - just smiled; they know how much of a packrat... OK, a hoarder... I really am. dwl
So now I have to catalog the books, dust 'em off, and get a man to carry 'em all downstairs to the front hall... and load them up into Babycakes... and drive down to Philadelphia. They're all going to my little second cousin, Max. And Uncle Ed, who gave me Babycakes - a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Brougham special edition sedan, brand new off the showroom floor - when I got my driver's license, in 1980, will have the opportunity to once again drive my Babycakes. Uncle Ed hasn't driven Babycakes for... think it's about 16 or 17 years now..... and it was the day he bought the car before that. :-)
When I told Max he could have my beloved books, and that he had to keep them in good condition so that he'd be able to pass them on to his children some day -- he told me that he was going to do that, but he wanted me to sign my name in each book first, before I gave it to him. I think I'm gonna get writer's cramps! :-/
I said to Max, "So it goes."
His reply, "And on, and on, and on, forever, God willing."