The Thanksgiving holiday began early in my household this year, with the arrival of my older son, daughter-in-law and their 5 month old baby brood on the Monday before Turkey Day, and ended with their departure more than a week later.
For one week, first thing, I'd do every morning is pad downstairs to visit with my granddaughter, and let me tell you, what a great way to get the day off to the right start. Hard to play the crusty annoyed curmudgeon after that. I wish I could post a picture, but such things are forbidden — social media has not won over the young the way it supposedly has. We're back to photos stealing their souls. Just as well —the blazing cuteness might sear your retinas, like staring into the noonday sun. They've been gone 24 hours, and I'm still fairly dazzled.
What did we do all day? We sang —I did quite an accurate cover of "The Gummy Bear Song" — "Oh, I'm a gummy bear/Yes, I'm a gummy bear/Oh, I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear...") even getting the slightly electronic warble in my voice (though, I admit, I tossed in a few rhyming adjectives not in the song itself —like "rummy" and "scummy." No reason the adults can't entertain themselves as well. We danced.
For one week, first thing, I'd do every morning is pad downstairs to visit with my granddaughter, and let me tell you, what a great way to get the day off to the right start. Hard to play the crusty annoyed curmudgeon after that. I wish I could post a picture, but such things are forbidden — social media has not won over the young the way it supposedly has. We're back to photos stealing their souls. Just as well —the blazing cuteness might sear your retinas, like staring into the noonday sun. They've been gone 24 hours, and I'm still fairly dazzled.
What did we do all day? We sang —I did quite an accurate cover of "The Gummy Bear Song" — "Oh, I'm a gummy bear/Yes, I'm a gummy bear/Oh, I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear...") even getting the slightly electronic warble in my voice (though, I admit, I tossed in a few rhyming adjectives not in the song itself —like "rummy" and "scummy." No reason the adults can't entertain themselves as well. We danced.
We read. We were always a book household, and many, many old books were pulled down and read. The one that sticks in my mind is "The Carrot Seed," the 1945 classic written by Ruth Krauss, with pictures by her husband, Crockett Johnson, once famous for the "Barnaby" comic strip and his book, "Harold and the Purple Crayon."
The plot of "The Carrot Seed" is simplicity itself. On the first page, an unnamed little boy —in the requisite beanie —plants a carrot seed. A parade of onlookers — his mother, father, big brother — tell him it won't come up. Still, he pulls up the weeds around the seed and sprinkles the ground with water. Nothing happens, except those who told him it wouldn't come up continue to tell him that. This affects his persistent care of the seed not at all. He weeds. He waters and then — spoiler alert — a glorious carrot, bigger than he is, shoots up. "Just as the little boy had known it would."
That's it. I don't know any young writers —or young people seized with any ambition. But its message —keep plugging, your carrot is coming, no matter what people say —is an essential one. And not just for young people. Success waxes, and wanes, and you can reach a point where nobody but nobody knows or cares what your projects happen to be. You weed, and water, and persist. Even if the carrot never sprouts. What else can you do?
The plot of "The Carrot Seed" is simplicity itself. On the first page, an unnamed little boy —in the requisite beanie —plants a carrot seed. A parade of onlookers — his mother, father, big brother — tell him it won't come up. Still, he pulls up the weeds around the seed and sprinkles the ground with water. Nothing happens, except those who told him it wouldn't come up continue to tell him that. This affects his persistent care of the seed not at all. He weeds. He waters and then — spoiler alert — a glorious carrot, bigger than he is, shoots up. "Just as the little boy had known it would."
That's it. I don't know any young writers —or young people seized with any ambition. But its message —keep plugging, your carrot is coming, no matter what people say —is an essential one. And not just for young people. Success waxes, and wanes, and you can reach a point where nobody but nobody knows or cares what your projects happen to be. You weed, and water, and persist. Even if the carrot never sprouts. What else can you do?
What a great analogy for parenting! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLovely. This reminds me of Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” Her performance of that poem always brings smiles.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sweet memory (my grandmother read this book to me and my sister when we were little ones) and the reminder to keep plugging away at it all.
ReplyDeleteWhat sweet visuals, Neil! I adore the idea of you singing and dancing with your granddaughter. Does my heart good.
ReplyDeleteIt was many decades after having been red "Where the wild things are" to that I was introduced to the ideas and mantras that led to Maurice Sendak to produce the story.
ReplyDeleteMr. Sendak treated kids with respect and didn't write "for kids." I didn't realize how important that was... it's still important.
There are so many good children books of old. Mike Mulligan and Maryanne, The Lorax, The Places you'll go, the little red hen... so many stories about doing what's right and true. It makes me wonder what people read to their children these days.
It is also quite obvious what wasn't read to some adults when they were children.
A hit, Double B, a palpable hit!
DeleteEasy to guess what kind of book, if any, Mrs. Fred Trump read to her kids. Some of the grimmer brothers Grimm tales perhaps, or sagas of brave Scottish knights untainted by insidious messages of the rewards of virtue.
tate
ReplyDeleteI read this as “it’s an existential one.” and found it worked, too.
I remember an old childhood song, "Carrots grow from carrot seeds, I planted one I'll grow it. I'll water it and pull the weeds. Carrots grow from carrot seeds."
ReplyDeleteAnd I remember that book too! thanks for the memories.
Awesome!
ReplyDeleteHope to get a grandchild someday .
You're very fortunate
The little boy in that story will be a wonderful grandpa, some day.
ReplyDelete"Harold and the Purple Crayon"...wow...that brings back some memories, Mister S. It's a classic children's book from the Fifties, about a toddler who has an imaginative adventure through the night. Harold was a curious four-year-old boy who had the power to create a world of his own, simply by drawing it, with his magic purple crayon
ReplyDeleteHarold wants to walk in the moonlight, but there is no moon, so he draws one. He has nowhere to walk, so he draws a path. He draws a dragon guarding an apple tree, goes for a boat ride, has a picnic and eats nine flavors of pie, and flies in a hot-air balloon. Harold grows tired, and searches for his bedroom window. He draws " a whole city full of windows." Finally, Harold remembers that his bedroom window was always "right around the moon"...and he draws his own room and bed. Harold drops the purple crayon on the floor, as he nods off to sleep.
It was Christmastime, in 1958, and I was eleven. Ran across the book downtown, at Field's. Bought it for my kid sister, who was in bed and miserable, after a tonsillectomy. She became furious with me. Said the book was "for a kid...and I'm not a kid." She was probably right. Sis was an intelligent and advanced seven-year-old. She really threw the book at me. Literally. Wish I had it now. It was a first edition.
The FBI came to the conclusion that that Harold was deliberately portrayed as having brown skin, and that Crockett Johnson's book was advocating for racial equality. They even suspected him of being a Communist. Later editions changed Harold's skin tone to a "light peach." And the crayon was purple... not red. Only in America. You can't make this [stuff] up.
One of the most famous sayings about persistence is by Calvin Coolidge:
ReplyDelete"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Or the words of lau tzo in the tao te ching
DeleteSoft and slow overcome hard and fast water dripping will destroy the hardest stone..
Franco
I know (hope) you appreciate the correction of typos. "One the first page, an unnamed little boy . . ."
ReplyDeleteKeep reading to your granddaughter-educators know and parents too-that children who are read to from an early age and continuing long after the child can read on his/her own, that this will make a reader. Your local library has many great picture books and as kids get older, many good lists and suggestions for books for kids all age appropriate. But do BUY books for kids too-they need to own books of their own. Grow a reader (like you grow a carrot).
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what that carrot pic would be about. Awww, you are a good Grandpa. Glad that after 2 boys, you have a girl baby to be with.
ReplyDeleteI wish you could post pics. That first grandchild….nothing in life compares. I bet she’s the cutest baby EVER!!!! Your readers all love her!
ReplyDeleteMe too. I actually had a photo of her being read "The Carrot Seed" where her face was (I thought) completely obscured. But not obscured enough — her mother is fiercely protective, as mothers ought to be, and I defer to her wishes.
DeleteCrockett Johnson was brilliant. He also wrote two books about Ellen's Lion: a little girl whose stuffed animal had a different personality but couldn't speak if Ellen's mouth was covered. (Hmm... sounds like describing a schizophrenic break, doesn't it?) The resemblance to Calvin and Hobbes caused one interviewer to ask Watterson if he had read the books. He said at the time he invented C&H all he knew about Johnson was the Purple Crayon.
ReplyDelete