. . . THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS AN ONLY CHILD.  On cold or rainy days, without siblings, she sought the companionship of fictional characters from her beloved books.  One friend in particular that she adored was Polly French..........

 

Yes, I did derive enormous pleasure from my books and it was Nancy Drew, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, Heidi, Trixie Belden and Donna Parker that were my closest companions helping me to pass away enjoyable hours during many a rainy afternoon.

To this day I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my mother for feeding my passion of reading since age four.  It was my mother that taught me to read so well that I was accepted at St. Margaret's School in Beverly Farms at age five into first grade.  And if you regularly follow my blog, you know that passion for reading has not diminished in the least over all these years.  It even led to my career as an author.  You are probably also aware of my huge book collection and the fact that to this day, I constantly have a current book that I'm reading.

Last week I was in an antique shop in Micanopy with my daughter and granddaughter.  I wandered through the various rooms glancing at depression glass, old-fashioned fine china, Victorian jewelry and all of a sudden my eye was drawn to a shelf filled with old books.  Never able to resist a look at books, old or new, I walked over, glanced up and my heart skipped a beat.  I had to shake my head, because I was literally transported back to 1956 when I was nine years old.  This is what I saw.............

I spied the spine of the book which read, POLLY FRENCH AND THE SURPRISING STRANGER" with the logo, Whitman at the bottom.  Carefully, I removed the book from the shelf.  I turned it over to the back cover and saw this...........

It was to be three more years until that little nine-year old girl would take HER first plane ride on TWA from Cincinnati, Ohio to Boston, Massachusetts.  And as this 61 year old woman stood in an antique shop in Micanopy, Florida she instantly recalled how that little girl had been so captivated and enthralled with this particular book.  She remembered how that little girl wanted to get dressed up like the people on the cover and soar through the sky to unknown adventures.  The woman hadn't heard the name "Polly French" in over fifty years, hadn't thought of the book, had no idea what even happened to her own original copy.  But what she did know was that the book, the pictures and the story made a deeper impression on that child than she could have realized.  Because that child grew up to travel extensively, to crave learning about other cultures and wanting to know people that were different than she was. The "surprising stranger" in the story is an exchange student from Lima, Peru that comes to stay with Polly French and her family.

Reading the story as a child (and I have a feeling I read this book more than once) I'm sure affected me in a way where I was looking forward.......wanting my own opportunity to board that plane, meet people that looked different, spoke different, ate different foods than I did.  I read through the book last week and yes, of course, it affected me now all these years later in a much different way.............I want to share with you the following passage from the book:

"Mr. Van Tuyl put a stop to the hubbub and explained briefly.  The only way to world peace was for nations to be friends.  The only way for nations to be friends was for individuals of various countries to get acquainted.  What better place was there to start than among young people?  Young people are the hope of the world.  In a few years they would be grown citizens and would be running governments.  It might be pretty impossible to go to war, Mr. Van Tuyl remarked, against people with whom you had gone to school."

Bear in mind, this book was written in 1956.  Interesting.  Based on recent world events, I find this passage even more relevant present day.

And all these years later, something else I find interesting about this book is.......notice the dress code on the back and front cover.  Yes, for those of you too young to remember, we did actually dress like this in the 1950's.......a hat for young girls and women, skirts or dresses and of course, gloves completed our outfit.  But even more surprising is that yes, people actually DID dress this way to fly on an airplane.  No sloppy jeans, tee-shirts, or flip-flops.  It was a privilege to be able to fly and people took pride in that fact by dressing in appropriate attire.  We also dressed this way (minus the gloves and dress hat) for school.

As you can see, the pages are old and yellowed and the book itself has that musty, comforting, aroma that only old books can have.  The spine is a little loose and cracked.  But to me........it's a treasure.  My treasure that I plan never to part with again.  A small snippet of my childhood, brought to this stage of my life...............From long ago and far away.

As an adult, have you ever found a cherished childhood treasure?  If not.......is there anything in particular that you would love to find again that will bring back those carefree days, that in retrospect, flew by much too fast.

See you here next time.........................