This book is so incredibly retro. It is a Golden book. (zing!) It is illustrated by Corinne Malvern (zing!) It is about a father, mother, son, daughter family. (zing!) It is idyllic and only vaugely associated with real life. (zing! zing! zing!)
(Not sure why zing is indicative of retroness, but there it is.)
I love retro things. Which is why I bought this book. Look at them, with their cat and dog gamboling about as they walk past rose covered fences! Why aren't there rose covered fences in my life?
Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you're part of the team! Everything is awesome!-- when you're living the dream.
--the Lego Movie Song
Despite this picture being completely posed and unrealistic, there is a part of me that uses 1950's illustrations (This book was reissued with new illustrations in the '50's.) as the basis for how life should be. I want to look out the window to see my daughter carrying in a basket of flowers while my husband mows the lawn in fancy clothes and my son gambols about.
Clearly gambol is the word today. And, if things continue on their trajectory paths, I fear for Tony's feet. Because his dad is paying no attention to which way the mower is going while he is smugly thinking he has got it all together.
Oh kitty!
This picture is in All I ever needed to know I learned in a Little Golden Book and it intrigued me enough to buy the book. I mean, who washes the dishes as a family and smiles all the while?
Sigh. Not us.
Daddy reads four fairy tales while mother is knitting before the magic hour of eight--bedtime prep.
Matching beds, matching blankets, tender, patient Mummy saying goodnight a bajillion times.
Morning routines.
Mother, working away at housework.
As they walk along, Mother thinks: "Now let's see, what do I have to buy today?"
Poor mother. Never a thought outside her duties and family.
This is pretty much what I try to live up to. No mess, no evident fuss, delighted children and friends, and a pergola covered in flowers.
And then they ride their new bikes (for Peggy's birthday) to the beach. While Peggy attempts to run down passer-bys.
Life was much easier in a 1940's Little Golden Book.
I love this book. I find it fascinating that even in 1947 Dad was pictured helping with the dishes and spending an hour with the kids after that, reading to them. Even in 2023 some dads still think this is all the woman's role. Question: is this the last page of the book?
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