The following is an enormously sad fact (for me): I didn't read books until I was almost out of my teens! (whisper *Don't tell anyone* hehe)

Something is wrong with our education methods, when a (future) book-loving kid, doesn't "do" reading.

BTW Are you like me in the aspect, that I now like ques and search for "waiting periods"? I don't leave my apartment without ammunition anymore! xD

I was very lucky that all my friends and I read romance novels. Mom gave us Gone with the Wind to read when I was 13 as she read it at that age. Mom always took us to the library every week in summer and we checked out large quantities of books so we were lucky that way. I always escaped into books as Mom did too.
However, in first grade I was convinced that I would never read as I was too dumb and spent hours crying about it. I think it might have been the teaching methods but not sure now. It was like being tortured for me. I always hated most of the books they made me read. Sorry you had to endure similar.

Celia wrote: "The following is an enormously sad fact (for me): I didn't read books until I was almost out of my teens! (whisper *Don't tell anyone* hehe)

Something is wrong with our education methods, when a (..."

I carry a book always. I remember reading on the walk to school. And when I worked at one law office and had to stand at the courthouse to file pleadings, there would be a line of us reading until our turn came. I feel like my time is wasted if I'm waiting and there's nothing in front of me to read :) My oldest daughter said she never wanted to turn into me when I recommended
And Then There Were None for a high school book report and she couldn't put it down. I seriously think that was the last book of fiction she read. Now my youngest has turned into a faster reader than I am but she goes for periods where she reads nothing and then it's a book a day. I have no idea what I did differently.

~☆ Alice☆~ wrote: "I was very lucky that all my friends and I read romance novels. Mom gave us Gone with the Wind to read when I was 13 as she read it at that age. Mom always took us to the library every week in su..."

I read quite a bit in elementary school, we just couldn't buy them to take them home or go to the library that was too far away. So it was the teacher's small shelf.

In grade school I read The Black Stallion and most all those. I think I got them from the school library. I was mad for horses then so read Misty of Chincoteague and all those too. I think there is a list for grade school but not sure.
Since I grew up on and around Air Force Bases we were always at the base library or the base movies. It used to be safe for us to walk everywhere or ride our bikes.

I remember those days Alice. I walked about 1-1/2 miles to kindergarten. Yes, there were a huge group of kids on both sides of the street but I just can't imagine doing that now. I don't know if things were really safer it's just that we didn't know about them.

I didn't go to kindergarten and Mom walked me to first grade until they got a new building built which was about 3 blocks away. Later I walked much further on base. I had a friend who was scared and so I used to walk her home but I was never much afraid (too dumb).
One friend at Halloween (on base) thought a man was after us as her mother had scared her and that was when I started to develop some fear. I used to walk on the beach for hours by myself even as I warned never to go there. Also, at the creek later in Texas and for hours in the forest in Newfoundland! I really believe things were safer then.

Of course sometimes I had a dog and later Mom purchased several German Shepherds which we took everywhere with us. People would cross the street if they saw one of those back then.

I grew up always in the worst part of town and saw too much stuff. My mother would just say to stay away from that end of the street or those people. We had drug dealers that the FBI busted, a pedophile family that didn't hide it, prostitutes that worked in the apartments down the block whose kids I played with, the old man that would give you a coke bottle to turn in if you frenched him - lots of sickos and I was born in 1961 so a lot of this happened in the 1960s. When you live in that sort of place, you learn where to stay away and what to look for. Maybe if we would have lived in a better area I would have thought things were better then. My sister and I took a friend around one of our old neighborhoods and were laughing at this really awful stuff while we pointed out houses, etc., he said we were walking down dysfunctional memory lane :)

Carolyn F. wrote: "I grew up always in the worst part of town and saw too much stuff. My mother would just say to stay away from that end of the street or those people. We had drug dealers that the FBI busted, a pe..."

Oh, I never saw stuff like that! I know one friend's father was an alcoholic so Mom told me not to go over there. Sorry you had to endure that. When did you grow up?

I grew up in Antioch and Lodi, California. The towns are nice but there are always bad parts of towns. Actually, although we were poor my childhood was nice. We all watched out for each other and I never experienced anything awful, it made me street smart for a little kid. People meet me and think I'm this really sweet middle aged woman (my voice gives that impression mostly) but boy-oh-boy, don't make me mad. I can swear like an expert. In fact that's one of the things I keep saying I'm going to try and do each New Years, stop swearing so much. :)

I can also swear something awful since college starting about my sophomore year! when I was in college it was a big fad partly due to Love Story. I thought I was very cool and even learned to swear in German via the German pilots I dated. Got engaged to one and he was so upset when the others taught me how to swear in German! LOL! I had all the curse words copied into my German book. I almost never say anything anymore but the other day I got a migraine and my husband did not get the picture that I needed to go home and go to bed. I made it real clear!
I seem to remember Stuck in Lodi again! I actually like that song.

One of the guys who wrote that was from Lodi and got stuck at my husband's grandfather's gas station. So I guess that makes us famous? (LOL)