A little bit of this, a little bit of that

My last entry sounded a bit harsh, so apologies to TAB and Elise especially. =( I love you guys!

Happy Birthday to Lady Lisa! Sweet 16! Hope you have a great year. (Woo hoo, now you can drive!!)

I was talking about childhood books with a friend of mine a couple months ago, so I started looking at the books here at home. Ah! Memories!
In our discussion, Winnie-the-Pooh was by far the most prevalent. This Good Hum was the one I had been looking for.

The more it snows
(Tiddelypom),
The more it goes
(Tiddelypom),
The more it goes
(Tiddelypom),
On snowing.
And nobody knows
(Tiddelypom),
How cold my toes
(Tiddelypom),
How cold my toes
(Tiddelypom),
Are growing.

As Pooh explained to Piglet, the best way of singing it is as follows:

The more it
SNOWS-tiddely-pom,
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
The more it
GOES-tiddely-pom
On
Snowing.

And nobody
KNOWS-tiddely-pom,
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
How cold my
TOES-tiddely-pom
Are
Growing.

"It was still snowing as he stumped over the white forest track, and he expected to find Piglet warming his toes in front of the fire, but to his surprise he saw that the door was open, and the more he looked inside the more Piglet wasn’t there."
(Both the poem and the quote are from The House at Pooh Corner, by A. A. Milne, chapter 1)

Winnie-the-Pooh is just as amusing. Take, for example, these excerpts.
"Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water.
"Pathetic," he said. "That’s what it is. Pathetic."
[Soon, Pooh comes along.]
"Good morning, Eeyore," said Pooh.
"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.
"Why, what’s the matter?"
"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can’t all, and some of us don’t. That’s all there is to it."
"Can’t all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.
"Gaity. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."
(Winnie-The-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, chapter 6)

I love Eeyore. He’s hysterical.

When we girls were young, it was always my dad’s "job" to read us books. We would go to the library with Mom, get our books, and anxiously wait for Dad to get home from work so he could read to us. It’s not that Mom didn’t like reading to us. It’s just that Dad had a special flair for it. Whenever I read the books now that Dad read to me as a youngster, I still read it with the emphasis and style in which Dad read them.
For instance, I cannot read the following poem without reading it like Dad said it. This was one of my favorites. I would have him read it over and over and over and over again. Poor Dad!

Oh, if you need a watch dog
Won’t you please consider me?
My name is Butch, I’m big and strong
And brave as brave can be.
(Bow-wow!)
My disposition’s very fine,
I’m wise as any owl,
And when it’s needed, I can make
A most fe-ro-cious growl.
(Grrrr!)
I frighten tramps and prowlers off,
I scare them through and through!
Oh, if you need a watch dog
Let me come and watch for you!
(Bow-wow-wow!)
(Kittens and Puppies, by Peggy Burrows, copyright 1955 by Rand McNally)

Another book Dad was forced to read time and again was Dr. Suess’s Fox in Socks. Looking back, I can’t believe he read this so much to me! Dr. Suess tongue twisters are not easy!!
(Setting: the fox in socks is driving his guest crazy with all his tongue twisters)

What do you know about tweetle beetles?
Well…
When tweetle beetles fight, it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.
And when they battle in a puddle, it’s a tweetle beetle puddle battle.
AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a tweetle beetle puddle battle.
AND…
When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle…
They call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.
AND…
When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles…
They call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle
AND…
Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!
When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle with their paddles in a puddles on a noodle-eating poodle, THIS is what they call…
A tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir!

That was my favorite part, out of the whole book. Sometimes I’d have Dad read just that part over and over again. He sure put up with a lot! Thank you, Dad!

Little Golden Books were also quite popular with me. The Sailor Dog, God Made Chickens, Little Lost Kitten, Bialosky’s Special Picnic, Fire Engines, The Merry Shipwreck, and Baby Dear were my all-time favorites. I even named one of my dolls Baby Dear! I think I still have her, actually. I’ll have to track her down.

The Story About Ping was a very educational book. I would not have heard about the Yangtze River at such a young age if it were not for this book. "Each morning as the sun rose from the east, Ping and his mother and his father and sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles and his forty-two cousins all marched, one by one, down a little bridge [off the boat] to the shore the Yangtze river."
(The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese)

I also enjoyed reading A House Is a House for Me, by Mary Ann Hoberman.
"A hill is a house for an ant, an ant.
"A hive is a house for a bee.
"A hole is a house for a mole or a mouse
"And a house is a house for me!"
Katie’s Adventures at Blueberry Pond and The Very Hungry Caterpillar were also quite good. Has anyone read Uncle Wiggily books? Those were great. I always got a kick out of Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy’s name (she was a muskrat lady). The duck, Jimmie Wibblewobble, also had a funny name. The Weasel, the Hawk, the Bear, the Wolf, the Fox, and the Bobcat were always trying to catch Uncle Wiggily, but he always outsmarted them.
"Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" That was a good one too. Lots of monkeys. =) (Caps For Sale, author not remembered.)
Thank you for taking this time to reminisce with me. It was a pleasure. And now, a word from our sponsors…