Long Before The Deer

  There is one thing good about problems.  They always help you to look for that elusive silver lining that everyone is always saying is there amongst the darkest clouds.  The gloom and doom can be assuage by finding one happy paragraph hidden in between the pages of an otherwise dire novel.  Not all is bad.  Discovering the termites had infiltrated my bookshelves and my books seemed to be an "end-of-the-world" situation.  I fretted over the fact that even though we have been fighting these critters since Hurricane Katrina, there appears to be no winning the war.  The fact that the termites became literary and attacked my books said volumes about their appetites.  They are voracious!  Son started ripping out the built-in book cases as I unloaded hundreds of antique books.  That silver lining was hard to find.

  My mind made up to look through the books and discard some, I sorted them into stacks.  The decision of which to toss, donate or keep was difficult.  I really needed more time and someone who has a keen eye to help me.  That ain't happenin', folks.  I am on my own.  I do not like this job except for the fact that I have found a few books that need reading!  My silver lining had been found.  A new desire to delve into a few of the dusty, old novels filled my brain.  So, I chose one to begin.

  "Bambi".  I did not even know that this was on the shelf.  Hmm?  Time to read this ragged novel that once belong to Aunt Elizabeth way back in the early 1920's.  Now before anyone thinks I am going to sit down and read a happy, little tale about a fawn, I shall explain.  Long before the now known as Disney version of "Bambi", another book was written.  Along about 1914, a noted author, Marjorie Benton Cooke penned a novel about a young woman and her haphazard adventures. Bambi is an impetuous young woman who marries a ne'er-do-well playwright and sets out to "find" a career to support him.  The story is rather sweet yet frustrating at times as today's reader cannot fully grasp why "Bambina" does what she does.  

  With the promotional overload of more modern tales, we are all jaded in our choices.  Gone are the days of classic novels that deserve to be read for pure enjoyment of the reader and not to fill the pockets of big business.  Books like Marjorie Benton Cooke's "Bambi" are lost in the shadows of the more popularized, flashy, movie versions of books by the same title. The classics are considered "old" and therefore not good.  Personally, I would rather hold a timeworn book in my hand and feel what the author wanted to relate than be bombarded with the current literary choices.  Dusty, old books are treasures.

Could I have been Polly?

Ok, so I really should stop digging about in all of the old trunks in the Little Bayou House.  It has been a week of finding long-lost treasures!  These might seem like worthless junk to most folks but to me they are all priceless treasures!  They are things that take me back to a lifetime ago..back to my childhood.

Once such thing is a little book that I came across today as I was digging through a chest that held a lot of antique bric-a-brac that my mother had saved.  She was a great one to hang onto a lot of unique and wonderful items that might also be described as useless!  I do the same.  Now the collection has burgeoned as I not only have hers but things that I added as well!  It is a doubly large collection!  It is exciting!  The little  book in question is torn and tattered but priceless beyond compare! (Well, probably not!)  When I uncovered the book, I was transported back eons ago when I first discovered it!  The book was wedged between two large volumes of encyclopedias on Mom's shelf. Perhaps that elusiveness was what thrilled me!    The book, however, is adorable!  I can remember being fascinated by the pictures long before I could read the words.  The book is entitled "Polly Through The Crystal" and is the story of a young girl with a vivid imagination.  She sees Brownies that are from Rhymeland and soon becomes small like them.  She has several adventures with the Brownies!  (And who ever hears of Brownies any more?  Brownies being a form of faerie.)

The little book brought back all sorts of memories..not just of the book itself but of my own imaginative dreams of faeries, Brownies and elves.  I sat for a few minutes just thinking of days past and then put the little book up in the china cabinet with a lot of other treasures. Hmmm..I could have been Polly at some point in my life..back when I had visits from Brownies and faeries.  Yep...treasures!

Its a Southern Belle thing....

Since all of the Christmas decorations made their way back into the closet for next ten months or so, I have been poking new items into the china cabinet to make up for the emptiness.  Well, not "new" things so much as maybe different things.  My china cabinet rarely, if ever, holds china.  Perhaps this is because I really do not have any what my grandmother used to call "good china".  Instead I have what my favorite great-aunt used to call a matched set of odd dishes.  Great-aunt Thelma was one of those little old ladies that fit the Southern Belle thing to a T as did my mom, grandmother and several of my dear aunts.  She was always the classy lady and if anyone could make a bunch of mismatched dishes into a beautiful set, she could.  So, now, I have taken over her idea of a set of odd dishes!  Works for me!  But, like I said, rarely does my china cabinet hold china!

As I was poking random objects into the cabinet, I was thinking of Great-aunt Thelma.  It was then that I realized what I was holding in my hand as the next treasure to place in the cabinet.   It was a tiny ribbon-bound book called "A Colonial Belle's Message".  I have no clue where the book originally came from but I do know that Mom had it for years and years before I came to own it.  The book is tattered and torn and is faded beyond belief but that matters not to me.  I love it!  Inside this tiny book are a lot of lessons that are not taught much any more.  Where have we gone astray?  Why do we not teach our daughters these things any longer?  Well...I can say that both my daughter and my daughter-in-law, could have followed this tiny book as their guideline of maturing.  If ever there were two Southern Belles of today's crowd, it would be Elizabeth and Joanna.  They both have the grace and beauty that, simply put, are required to be a true Southern Belle.

In the little book, the pages show different items that would have been on a lady's dressing table of days past.  Each page has a passage pertaining to some item...say "Genuine Rouge".  If you lift a little tab, inside you would see an important trait that applied to the message.  For instance...rouge being "Modesty" to be applied to the cheeks for a "bright glow".  (Modesty...hmmm..that is something lacking in so many young ladies of today!)  So many virtues are listed in such a tiny book!  What wonderful lessons for the growing girl!  While being slammed with all of the "un-ladylike" things in the world today, wouldn't it be delightful for some young girl to follow the ideals in this little book?  I am glad that my girls are such Southern Belles!  It does the heart good!

Rainy Nights and Old Books

For most people, rain and Christmas just do not go together. I am not most people..I simply love rainy evenings! The sound of the raindrops pelting on the rooftop coupled with the warmth from the woodburning stove, set me in the mood to settle in with a good book. I scanned the bookshelves in the dining room for the perfect read for the evening. A copy of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens fit the bill! It was lying by itself on the shelf right near the Christmas Tree. Strangely enough, I do not recall placing the book there..but there it was..so it became the night's entertainment. I picked up the book and looked it over..to be honest..I do not recall ever seeing this book before. Where did I get this copy? It was a bit unsettling but I took my chosen book into the living room, pulled a blanket around me and opened the cover. The book smelled old..really old. There is a distinct smell that old books get over time. It brought back memories of visiting the old library back in the day..it had that same musty smell. I read, the fire crackled and the rain poured.



As I paused to stoke the fire, I realized that it was nigh on midnight. I had been entranced by the book and had lost all track of time. This got me to pondering just how much is lost by not reading. We all watch TV or movies but hardly read an actual book. Is reading becoming a thing of the past? Are books going to be fully replaced by electronic means? I hope not..books are treasures. I picked up my copy of "A Christmas Carol" and again was transported into another world.