Lesson 688: Halfway

Hello, Readers.

Happy birthday to Eloise!

I had a milestone birthday this week.

Halfway to a hundred isn't bad at all.

The festivities started last weekend.
The fam reserved a theater so we could watch a movie.

Movie theater popcorn tasted so good!

March 3rd rolled in on a Wednesday,

making for a super exciting pandemic style birthday.

I hope this isn't an omen,

but the 5 candle broke.

After a day of Lost-esque flashbacks

I settled down for the remainder of the evening

with a book on my lap.

This was one of my gifts from my family.

This contains the full copy of the New York Times on the day I was born.

I was born during Vietnam.

When midi lengths skirts were in style

and Chock Full O'Nuts Coffee was 75 cents.

I found something extremely interesting

halfway through the publication.

In the Letters to the Editor section,

this famous pig caught my eye.

Mrs. Eloise's elementary school eye recognized the artwork.

He's from children's author/illustrator William Steig's

1969 Caldecott Award winning book,

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

Here is your halfway through the post history lesson--

with a few connect the dots moments for my Readers,

some following this blog for over 10 years.

I read it to Penny and Hazel and they are fast asleep.

(yes, my pit bull uses a Vera Bradley blanket).

This was one of my favorite books in the Clark School library.

I checked it out many a time in the mid 1970's,

and I checked it out again today.

It's about a family of donkeys!

Sylvester loved to go for walks outside and collect rocks.

Sylvester found a magic pebble,

shiny and red.

When he wished for things, 

they came true if he was holding the pebble in his hoof.

A wild animal startled poor Sylvester.

He was not the best in panic situations.

Sylvester could have wished for numerous solutions to his problem

had he some clarity of thought.

The panic got the best of him and instead,

he said this:

so....

Sylvester's parents were heartbroken,

but fast forward to the end...

they were reunited.

But, in the 1971 there was controversy over a drawing

in this award winning book.

It seems after Sylvester's parents called the dogs out for a fruitless search

for their son,

they went to the police.

This prompted some outrage by the police about their depiction as pigs.

William Steig himself wrote a letter to the editor 

of the New York Times in response.

It's interesting to look back on history 

from a halfway to a hundred view point.

So much has changed,

yet so much has stayed the same.

Eloise