Velveteen Rabbits

Sure, right here (grabs book)

d'oh. When will A2K come equipped with webcam? Just a sec...

Here we go "Pool of Tears"

That's a corker, Soz . . . Rackham certainly takes a back seat to no other illustrators . . .

Mock turtle



Pretty much all of 'em here:

http://www.exit109.com/~dnn/alice/rackham/

(I had all of these as a [large!] poster in my room as a child -- part of why I love Rackham.)

Is it not significant that so many of the truly great illuistrators such as Rackham, Wilcox-Smith and Parrish flourished in the late 19th and early 20th Century? Printing techniques were at their height, and people appreciated the quality. We lose some very valuable things when technology makes things so easy for us.

Those are breath taking illustrations, soz. They certainly fit with the tone of the story better than the originals.

Quality is certainly hurt when things become easier, but they also become more affordable and there is something to be said for that.

I could spend the entire day in the children's book section and I know there are some current books with beautiful illustrations. Still, nothing quite like the ones posted here.

That's a great story -- what a find!

I've been trying to think of a velveteen rabbit of mine. As a child who traveled like a gypsy for her first 11 years and shared it all with her big sister and then three more sibs... sigh, not much. No huggable animal -- I lost my Zippy chimpanzee a long time ago. I still have a few well-loved books and there is a small piece of aqua-colored velvet cloth from a dress that I loved.

Hi piffka!

My family gypsied around too, and we were poor so there aren't a lot of leftover things. Which is probably why my rabbit comes from my teen years instead of my childhood.

But I do know that many of my childhood things were left in the basement of our house on South Harper St., Chicago. If I ever go back to Chicago I may just go knocking.

I love the saved cloth from the dress!

(But I confess to getting a strange David Lynch "Blue Velvet" image in my head....)

My mother, now "late" these 21 years, used to save cloth which is another gypsy trait, I think. When I was going through the family accumulation, I plucked out that bit. But y'know, I never saw the film, Boomerang. Did I miss a lot?

We went a'knocking at Mr.P's grandfather's home in Spokane a few years ago. For him, there was nothing left except for a few shrubs and the views out the window.

Lord, i cannot believe that i've forgotten this book . . .



I suffered a very serious injury in 1954, aged about three-and-a-half. My grandfather improved upon my convalescence to teach me to read, and this is the book he used. I can still distinctly recall the day it began to sink in, and i eagerly flipped through the pages, finding every instance of the word "the"--because i was certain sure of that word.

The classic illustrations of the original book, 1908, were done by E. H. Shepard, a contemporary of Rackham, Parrish, Wilcox-Smith . . .



Toad of Toad Hall

and here we have yet another book which was also illustrated by Arthur Rackham . . .

It has been driving me crazy all day.....

Who mentioned their grandfather's dairy?

Dlowan.

How could he?

Your father deserves a severe spanking.

I have a deep and sincere place in my heart reserved for handwritten things.

Oh, Pifka - you haven't missed much. Don't spoil your velvet by watching that movie.

Well, I would gladly have delivered it. Sigh - he was very abused as a child, poor fella - and made himself a much better man than his father - but other people's feelings never really existed for him - he was a very narcissistic personality - but he did the best he could.

BUT I'D LIKE TO THROTTLE HIM FOR THAT ONE!!!!!

The national archives would have that damned diary by now - and all the families of my aunts and uncle would have copies. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It was not only a personal one - but a station management one - my mum was born in 1920 - and the document went back several years before that. It would be a priceless picture of agricultural practices, social history, Aboriginal history (I know lots of Aboriginal people camped there - I have a few photos of me mum and her dad and sisters with some of the local people - still pretty much in traditional dress, and living in what look like traditional bark huts - so I think they were still nomadic - and not stuck on a mission - there were traditional watering holes a-plenty on that property - I have seen them - with the rocks around worn smooth by millenia of Aboriginal bottoms and feet ).

Smeg the man! My mother saved it so lovingly - it was such a treat as wee kiddies to have a little of it read to us (I never met my maternal grandfather, except as a baby, so I have no memories of him - but he was apparently a wonderful man, with sensitivities and respect for the land and its people ahead of his time - and a wonderful and gentle father. My grandma was a much tougher proposition altogether!) - especially the page with the entry in joyous red ink because "Little Nancy came home today!!!"

I never DREAMED he would throw it out when I left home. I would have taken it.

On another thread I described how we used to play marbles in my boyhood neighborhood. What I didn't reveal there is that I still have all those shooters and moonies, those clearies and steelies and boulders.

They're in a jar on my bureau along with:

an 'I like Ike' pin from '56
my first class scout pin
some pins from the 1956(?) Olympics
a bunch of 1943 steel pennies
the reflector from my first two-wheeled bike, it was a Columbia.
two pencil stubs (?!?)
a Fatima medal,
a second class Scout patch
in a small envelope the first uncirculated coin I ever got:a 1958 nickel, a gift from my father.
a skate key
some rock samples including a tiger's eye and some fool's gold
my tenderfoot pin
a pin showing the flag of the Congo State
a wooden boulder (the envy of all Valley Street)
A St. Patrick's day pin
the little white plastic horse from the Fort Apache set and
a rifle from one of the soldiers
some mercury head dimes
a set of rosary beads
a little disc of gold,
two tiny orbs of opal
and a shiny rounded stone of indeterminate origin

my cloth marble bag lies at the bottom of the jar
and concealed within the layers of marbles are silver dollars and the plastic captain of the boat I sailed down Bigalow Brook
a thousand million billion trillion times.

There's a big nail and a button and a Boston Baked Beans pin
there's a Nike Rocket only two inches long
There's the little guy from the P-40 fighter model I was supposed to paint but never did,
and a ring made from a nail from Sturbridge Village......

It's my childhood.

A therapist (e pluribus unum) had the brilliant idea that if I put my childhood away, I could better face the drama I was facing at the time.
(Something about losing everything, rejected love, loss of self-abandonment issues--- I forget which time this was.)


Anyway, I collected all these things and lots more I cannot see to describe to you because they are covered by the marbles, and there they are in the jar. And in my heart.

Sometimes when I am getting my socks out for the day's work I look at this jar, I see a mercury dime or see my favorite blue moonie peeking out of the pile,

and I am home for a moment, just off the corner of Newman and Valley Streets. It is August and a Tuesday morning and the guys are getting together a marathon game of whiffle ball.

We're going to play 100 innings or whichever team gets a 100 runs first.

It takes me forever to close the drawer, get dressed and head out into the city of adulthood.

Joe

Joe.....

<gasp>

<swoon>

(By the way, I remember your marbles. I think I talked about my yellow things on that same thread.)

Joe--

What a marvelous collection of amulets of power you have.

What is a wooden boulder?

Marbles are sized, peewees are the small ones, about a quarter of an inch to 5/16 dia, regular sized are 3/8 to a half inch, then come the boulders 3/4 of an inch to the giants reaching 1 inch in diameter. (some made of Steel.) Marbles are made from generally two materials, glass and marble.

My boulder is carved from wood, it belonged to my mother's brother, "Solider Boy" John Moynihan, teacher, sharp tongued observer of the world, and Massachusetts State Marble Champion in 19thirtysomethingorother.

Is a wooden marble heavy enough to move other marbles?

I had a bag of marble--a maternally crochet bag--but I didn't want to play marbles because I might have lost my treasures. Marbles are wonderous charms and I covet most marbles that I see.

I just read your list of treasures, Joe, and fell in love with the spirit of your writing all over again.

You are the best.

Love, Eva