A Book by any other name

So after returning home from an adventurous 'road trip', what's one of the first things I look forward to doing? Getting away again - by getting lost in a book. It's truly the quickest, most inexpensive way to 'travel' and escape.

I live in the 'now' and have the 'future' to look forward to, so most of the time I choose to travel back. Back in history, into the courts of King Henry VIII (and I've learnt it's much easier on the neck to be a 'lady in waiting', than a wife or mistress), or perhaps a 'Little House on the Prairie' type setting (working the land and all that stuff), or 'turn of the century' Victorian London, awash with prostitutes,thieves and surgeons. Even though it's 'old', it's aways new to me. Simpler times perhaps, that survived without the internet, fast food and air conditioning.

Escaping into the page, I fancy myself dining on delicacies such as roast goose and partridge, dressed in layers of petticoats, bustles and hoods, and churning butter and stitching feather beds.

My earliest favorites were Heidi (how I wanted to climb that mountain and drink goat's milk!), the Little House on the Prairie books (how important it was to use all parts of the slaughtered pig and to make maple 'candy' in the snow, and don't even get me started about Pa!), Little Women (Marmee and her girls, and acting out Pilgrim's Progress), and of course, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Francie Nolan and her brother Neely (Cornelius)manage to survive in pre WW1 Brooklyn with their parents, Katie, who scrubs floors with lye soap and favors Neely, and Johnny, the singing waiter, alcoholic father.

I have reread this story so many times, the experiences that Francie and Neely endure, feel as if they were my own. Making a pickle last all day, the star bank, 'wasting' coffee (everyone needs a luxury and something to throw away) penny candy, visiting the library and asking the 'library lady' to 'recommend a book for a girl, she is 12', first vaccinations on a dirty arm (my brother's arm is just as dirty as mine, Francie sobbed)and school! The love of learning that is instilled in Francie from her parents, and the anguish she feels when her mother chooses Neely to continue his education and pulls Francie out. Neely begs to leave school and work, and Francie wants to stay in school, so Katie states: "That's why he has to stay and you have to leave, because you will do everything in your power to find your way back".

Francie said and felt it best. Once she learned how to read, she knew:

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood."

I'm glad that today I have more friends than I did when I first became a reader, and also glad that I have more books always waiting (patiently) for me to escape into.

Happy reading!