The Man Who Didn’t Wash His Dishes

By Phyllis Krasilovsky 

Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Copyright 1950

What can happen when you put off simple tasks day after day?  They turn into monumental problems, as the man in this children’s storybook discovered.

He lived alone in a small, neat house and was always vigilant about housekeeping.   One evening, he was so tired after working all day and fixing his supper that he couldn’t muster up the energy to wash his dishes.  Surely it wouldn’t hurt to save them until the next day.  Unfortunately, the next day didn’t find him with any more energy. 

Day after day, his dishes piled up in his sink and on his countertop; on his furniture and on his floor, until he had no more dishes left.  One would think this would force him to break down and wash his dishes.  But no, the man just started to use soap dishes, ash trays and vases.  Eventually, he used up everything. 

What would he do now?  

What luck!  It started to rain!  What a great idea he had then.  All he had to do was pile his dishes into the back of his truck and set them out in the rain to get clean. 

Fortunately, the man had learned his lesson.  Now, of course, he washes his dishes each night.  Sure, it may take a few extra minutes of work when he is very tired, but now, when finished, he can relax in his chair during the evening and find his bed at night because the dishes are where they belong.  

What I like about this book is not just the lesson on the pitfalls of procrastination, but also the man’s creative solution to a seemingly insurmountable dilemma.  When a challenge seems unsolvable, it can be best to “think outside the box”.  While the conventional solution to a problem may not always be effective, a little ingenuity may be just the thing you need!

James Branch Cabell

By Carl Van Doren

Copyright 1932

Although I have this book on my shelf, I’ve never read it.  And honestly, I probably never will read it, at least not in its entirety.   I do believe I’ll always treasure it, though, due to the very short inscription inside the front cover.  It states simply,

 Madeleine Park 

 Feb. 1932.

Madeleine Park was my great aunt and my godmother.  She was commonly known to me as Aunt Birdie.  If I remember the story correctly, her nickname came about because she was afraid of birds!   I was not quite ten years old when Aunt Birdie died at the age of 82, and I know little about her life, but 10 years was enough time for me to learn a valuable lesson from her.  Hospitality.

Many summer mornings, my mom would visit her mother, Martha Kolzow, over on Davis Street.  I would go with and spend some time there, sitting on Grandma’s enclosed front porch and perhaps dusting the furniture in her living room.  After a bit, my brother Adam and I would often ask if we could go visit Aunt Birdie and Uncle Bill.  Conveniently, they lived just a few houses down. 

Aunt Birdie and Uncle Bill never had children of their own, yet always knew how to make my brother and I feel loved and welcomed.  We would sip lemonade in the living room and chat a little.  I don’t recall what two elderly people and two young children discussed, but I remember always feeling like they enjoyed our visits.  How nice to feel like your presence is appreciated! 

Aunt Birdie and me

This display of hospitality affected me so much that all these years later, when I see her name inscribed in this book, I remember how I felt on those summer mornings.  It doesn’t take much to let someone know they are appreciated.  A smile, eye contact, a little friendly conversation, can make a great deal of difference in a person’s life.  I only hope I provide a fraction of Aunt Birdie’s thoughtfulness to guests who knock on my door!

Sleepover List

By Adrian Claus

Written around 1976

Today’s selection is not a book, but a forgotten item I found in one of my favorite childhood books.


 list

1. 1 shirt
2. 1 pants
3. 1 socks
4. 1 slippers
5. 1 nightgown
6. 1 speeping bag (I think I meant sleeping bag)
7. 1 Underpants
tooth brush and toothpaste
brush and comb



I wonder if I could have packed without this list.  Might I have forgotten my nightgown and my “speeping bag”?  And I wonder why I capitalized Underpants, and not any other items?  Did I think Underpants were more important than anything else?  

I can assume that this list was made before one of my countless sleepovers at Karen’s house.  For several years, I think we had a few sleepovers every week during summer vacations, alternating between my house and hers.  The only thing that confuses me is why I didn’t write down that I needed to bring Freddy.  I guess that was just a given.  My little brown stuffed dog always went along to our sleepovers.  Otherwise, Karen’s Red Baby would have been lonely!  Yes, Red Baby was aptly named.  Her molded head was kept attached to her red cloth body with a scarf wound around the neck.  Love comes in all shapes and sizes!

This little half index card is a treasure.  It brings to mind memories of a carefree childhood with a lifelong friend.  

If you are interested in hearing about what other people have left in books, check out  Forgotten Bookmarks.  In this blog, a used bookseller shows items that people have left in the pages of books. 

Predictions

Pictorial predictions from the past

By John Durant

Copyright 1956  

When I think of a period in history, I don’t recall specific dates, battle sites, or names of treaties.  Instead, I like to wonder what the average citizen was living through at that particular time.  Was it easy for them to choose a side on an issue?  What were they most afraid of?  What were their hopes for the future; for the future world their children and grandchildren would live in?  This book sheds light on these perceptions.  

Each page contains an illustration from around the turn of the twentieth century, predicting what life would be like in what was then the distant future.  Some of these drawings are eerily accurate.  Others are far off base.  

In an 1897 LIFE magazine, one artist displays a prediction for “an inauguration of the future”.  While I’m sure it seemed ridiculous at the time, this drawing shows a woman becoming President.  While it hasn’t happened yet, this event no longer seems preposterous.  

An illustration from a 1907 LIFE illustrates a suburb of the future in which pedestrians have been forced off the streets by the many vehicles rushing by.  This has certainly come to pass in many parts of the country.  

One erroneous prediction is from a 1901 LIFE and was titled “A Prediction For 1905.  Of course there will always be some use for the automobile.”  The artist depicts a car, resting on a lawn, planted full with flowers.  The cartoonist thought that the airship, as shown in his drawing, would replace the automobile.  

Similarly, some people are predicting that physical copies of books will become a relic of the past.  I hope that this prediction is one that doesn’t come true.  I know that many consider electronic portable devices and e-books to be enjoyable and convenient, but to me, there is nothing like the feel of picking a well-loved book off my shelf and settling with it in a comfortable chair.  

Like the “airship”, e-books have their place, but like the automobile, it is difficult to imagine a world without traditional books. 

The Hundred Dresses

by Eleanor Estes

illustrated by Louis Slobodkin

copyright 1973

The Hundred Dresses is a children’s book that was first published in 1944, yet holds a message achingly pertinent to people in any day and age.  I read this book as a child in the seventies and I remember feeling heartache for the main characters.  A child reading it today will be able to empathize with them as much as a child of seventy years ago.  

Wanda Petronski not only has a funny name, but she lives in the poor part of town and wears the same faded, blue dress to school every single day.  One day, she tells the other girls that she has a hundred dresses at home in her closet.  The dresses are silk and velvet, in many beautiful colors.  Peggy, the most popular girl in class, and her best friend Maddie, begin to “have fun” with Wanda, every day questioning her about her hundred dresses.  

While Maddie felt uncomfortable with this teasing, she sure didn’t want to speak up.  After all, the girls might start to pick on her!  Maddie’s feelings escalate when Wanda doesn’t show up for school for several days.  They discover that Wanda’s father has moved the family to the city, where their funny last name won’t stand out.  The children also come to realize that Wanda wasn’t actually lying about her hundred dresses.   

This story is as much about the children who, in hindsight, regret their actions as it is about the pride, talent, and imagination of the girl who was teased.  

The author does an excellent job of portraying the complicated feelings of both the bully and the bullied in a language simple enough for children to understand.  

“At last Maddie sat up in bed and pressed her forehead tight in her hands and really thought.  This was the hardest thinking she had ever done.  After a long, long time she reached an important conclusion.  She was never going to stand by and say nothing again.” 

This is a story about compassion, kindness, and understanding that resonates today as much as it did when it was first written.