I was an A+ foot stomper. Got sent to my room so many times, so many times each week, actually. You ask why did I continue to stomp my foot when I knew the “punishment”? Well, I’ll tell you. There were two reasons.
There are foot stompers and then there are foot stompers. Stomping one’s foot was not on the list of approved activities in my childhood home. That didn’t stop me, though. I was an A+ foot stomper. Got sent to my room so many times, so many times each week, actually. You ask why did I continue to stomp my foot when I knew the “punishment”? Well, I’ll tell you. There were two reasons.
The first reason was that I liked my room better than any other room in the house and I liked being by myself better than being with my family. And my books were in my room. Now books – they are really the reason I ever stomped my foot.
Books – their pages, their smell, their covers, their differing fonts; their differing subject matter; I loved them all at an early age. When I was young, Saturday was the day I went to my most favorite place in the city – the public library. Five books were all I could check out. My nasty little sister wouldn’t check any out for me, preferring to leave empty-handed than her arms full of what would bring me untold pleasure; my mom checked out books for herself – that I could understand; my sister, well, I could never understand her. Still can’t.
Back to stomping my foot. Each day I’d finish my homework and dive straight to the library books. Of course the books were read before the week ended. I wanted more books. Stomp my foot. Go to my room. Stomp my foot. Go to my room. Repeat this performance almost daily until Saturday finally rolled around.
I learned a lesson during those years: always be surrounded by books. Always have been. Built a house with a 16 x 30 library with
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built-in book shelves. We homeschooled in that house; each child had 4 bookcases in the bedroom. The children finally left for school and we were left with the books. I felt like stomping my foot when we were packing their books to donate….
So now I reach a point in Life where I want to spread the joy of learning. Yes, teaching folks to read is more rewarding than I can describe. I needed more. I discovered Operationpaperback.org. Our soldiers overseas and our wounded soldiers in VA hospitals read; they read a lot, on just about every subject you can imagine. Their requests for books has almost knocked out the urge to stomp. If I feel that urge surfacing, I ship boxes of gently read paperbacks to our troops.
Operationpaperback.org is on my mind tonight because one of my boys came home this past weekend. We are moving soon, again, and my mandate was either pack your books for the move or you lose them. He packed four cartons and left the rest for me. Ah, that is fine though. They will be read over and over and over by our soldiers. I am happy tonight.
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ps Don't you know I love my Kindle : )