Books
Forward
My "little books" are contained within the three volumes found within
the left side navigation. The first two volumes were written while I was working at a full time job. The third volume was started after I retired. Below you will find why this section of our web
site is a tribute to my fathers mother, my mother and every parent who reads to
a child.
My grandmother carefully saved the coin's from her egg sales. Baked cakes and cookies for other's to buy and saved what little she could from their meager wages. This was during the great depression. Times were tough. A man child was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1939. Shortly after my birth, she and my grandfather came to Mobile and presented me with a treasure which was priceless - Journeys Through Bookland, by Sylvester, 1939. This treasure consisted on twelve volumes and became a regular source of reading's to me by my mother until I was able to read for myself. We did not realize, until much later, how much our treasure had cost my grandparents. My father told me that they had actually gone without food, upon occasion, so that they could present me with this priceless treasure.
Even unto this day, I carefully turn the pages of this ancient manuscript, reading the splendor contained therein. Many say that as an older adult, my behavior at best is still that of a child. I delight in leaves falling, watch with patience as ants scurry to and fro, love a good clean joke and with vigor respond in kind, laugh aloud if with no apparent reason, and upon occasion talk with the little people.
You our journey man have not happened here by chance, rather by design. Your visit will be rewarded for I will give you a gift's for your return to normal daily activities, after leaving this place on the internet. The gift's are these: Understanding. An understanding that parents who read to their children from an early age are giving treasure which will be stored in heaven. Love. A love for reading which excels all else, save your love of Jesus. Joy. A joy of traveling back in time and space to your childhood. Hope. A hope for a better tomorrow, because you now read to your children and allow yourself the same joy. Music. Not narrow music, but music which fill's your soul. Choose all form's of music. Feel the passion or compassion of the composer. Time. While we can not actually give time, for the sands of time wait for no man, we can give you a tool for your use of time for reading for yourself and to your children. Just take one hour a day. All else will be accomplished, or it was not worth doing in the first place. So simple that anyone can learn this skill in one hour.
Before you leave take the book. Place it in a safe place. Refer to it often and these gifts which I give you freely are yours for now and all of eternity.
Every worthy teacher in every school gives more than his or her salary commands and puts heart power into every act. By example and precept the lessons are taught and growth follows in response to cultivation. But the schools are handicapped by lack of time for much personal care, by lack of facilities for the best of instruction and by the multiplicity of things that must be done. Under the best conditions a teacher has but a small part of a child's time, and then instruction must be given usually to classes and not to individuals. Outside of school, for a considerable time each day, the child falls under the influence of playmates who may or may not be helpful. The greater part of every twenty-four hours belongs to the home.
Parents, guardians, brothers and sisters, servants, and all people with whom we come in contact are consciously or unconsciously, wisely or unwisely, teaching all the time.
Everybody reads, and reading is now and forever will be, the greatest single influence upon humanity. The day of the orator has passed, the day of print has long been upon us. Television and video games are replacing our passion for reading.
Please take careful note. No adult remains long uninfluenced by what he reads persistently, and every child receives more impressions from his reading than from all other sources put together.