Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Childhood entertainment

I do not know where this book came from--it was in our home as long as I can remember. It provided me with hours and hours of entertainment when I was a kid. I think when I first began looking at it, I was almost so small my mom had me set down and she would give it to me then. I would go through it sometimes from cover to cover, but sometimes I skipped over the things like fleas and cockroaches and worms...I was in it for the feathers and the fur as well as butterflies, moths and snakes.
I can remember looking at it before I could read....totally loving the animals. I don't guess it is any wonder that when I was young, I would have loved to have had a job with Jim Fowler and Marlin Perkins of Wild Kingdom fame. I never wanted to be a vet so much as an animal handler or naturalist. I just loved fooling with animals and still do.
And this picture of the bat always gave me the creeps, and still does. When I was a kid I don't remember seeing very many bats...I don't know if they were not there or if I just didn't see them. I would assume the latter. Here, it is normal to see them out every evening at dusk. And when I worked at the orchard, sometimes they were in the barn, and sometimes in the big cooler before we cleaned it out and closed it and started the refrigeration.
As I got this book out, I wondered what it would be worth on Antiques Roadshow...it has definitely seen better days but it holds a lot of memories for me.

7 comments:

  1. I was always picking books from my parent's bookcase, looking through them and reading some lines, most of the time not understanding anything...

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  2. I remember that book along with the book with pictures of trees in it. I found the tree book the last time I was home.

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  3. I had almost forgotten the tree book, but remember that great big black book that was at least 3 or 4 inches through and the pages were thin? Wonder what ever happened to it....

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  4. Didn't you just love Wild Kingdom!!
    Jim was always the one to have to do everything :)
    I want to say the images in the book would be of more value than the book itself because of it's worn condition.
    Nice memory to share.

    In your comment on my Iris today you asked about rain. We have had almost 3 inches since yesterday and apparently we aren't finished.

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  5. I'm sure we had this book. I know we had a few knocking around as a child that inspired me...
    Nice to be back posting visiting and of course commenting.

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  6. Looks like a nice old book. At first glance I thought it was one of the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Story books.

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  7. When I was a little girl I got a similar book. Animals from all over the world. Only black and white photos. It brings good memory too.

    Have a nice day :)

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