Gut Rumbles
 

August 23, 2004

do they still exist?

By the time I finished sixth grade, I probably read more than 100 Little Blue Book biographies about people from George Washington to Booker T. Washington. I really enjoyed those things. They were easy to read, they taught me a lot about people I admired and I liked seeing my name on the library card in the back of the book when I picked up one I already read.

Those books sanitized the lives of some rounders (such as Sam Houston, Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth) but they were excellent fodder for a young boy's mind. You can learn about the warts famous people have when you grow older and develop warts of your own. A young man needs heroes. Pure, unvarnished heroes.

Those books gave me my heroes. I wonder if kids still read those books today? If not, they're really missing a treat.

Comments

Are those the ones that focused mostly on the hero's childhood? If so, I read them all too.

Posted by: shell on August 23, 2004 11:57 AM

Your fingers would wear out listing the things We had that our Chirren do not.

They have done it on purpose, too.

Posted by: wes jackson on August 23, 2004 01:47 PM

Gosh, Almighty, you are so right. I read every one of those the library at Wheeless Road Elementary School in Augusta, GA, had on the shelves. I'm sure they smoothed the rough edges, but I learned a lot of history that way.

Posted by: rivlax on August 23, 2004 02:33 PM

I read everyone our school had...Jim Bridger to Betsy Ross and everything in between. Last time I even saw one the school was dumping them all in favor of more 'enlightened' works. I wish I'd had the foresight to scrounge all of them. I think I would re-read them all given the chance.

Posted by: Joe on August 24, 2004 09:27 AM
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