old friend

Classic books that are dear to our family are what I call "old friends". You don't just want to pick it up once and read it never visiting it again. We talk about how when you visit with your old friend each night, you learn new things you never knew on first reading. So, this is my very old friend copyright circa 1963. I inherited it as a child, but not in the 60's thank you very much....more like the 80's.. I can remember family gatherings around The Best Word Book Ever, identifying household objects on its pages and having conversations about daily life from its pictures. Richard Scarry even hid a silly snail on each page. It's fun to hunt for this little guy in each scene. A Where's Waldo of sorts. Miller loves the hidden object game.

When Grandmama  watched Miller every morning during his first year of life, they enjoyed our classic family friend together too. I know this contributed to his little expanded vocabulary. He liked the transportation page of course. And, now he's teaching Eliza Kate new things from its pages.Her favorite scene is looking inside the Busytown house. The kitchen section really holds her attention too. Miller was teaching her all about the spatula and how he uses it making cookies the other day. She's taking notes on how to become a wonderful homemaker.

There's something about this book that symbolizes my own childhood. And, watching my own children enjoy it warms over my sentimental heart. Miller noticed how I recorded my own name on one of the pages. Sure, it has tears and re taped pages, but we like it that way. It has been loved on and enjoyed for years.

And, since we have the original our kids are learning about traditional gender roles in a 1960's home. It's actually a little slice of a simpler time in life. Refreshingly, Leave it to Beaver. The Busytown mom is shown joyfully working in her kitchen perfecting the art of homemaking and making her home pleasant for her husband. Her house is spotless. How does she do it?  She even does her laundry and irons inside the kitchen. A lot of the kitchen utensils are manual without the use of electricity. Her Busytown children have pulled up a seat beside the counter to make afternoon cookies with their mom. She's also shown strolling her baby in the neighborhood in the most beautiful of prams. Dad is shown dressed in business attire. Our "male" mail carrier walks house to house....sigh. The book depicts a milkman which was a completely foreign concept to Miller. It's brought up a lot of fun flashback conversations. No one is texting, surfing the internet, eating on TV tables in the den, facebooking or shopping online..that's for sure.

Well, Busytown has been busy changing in more recent years. In the updated 1991 edition,  the mom & the dad are busy in the kitchen sharing responsibilities. Where is her gas range, stainless fridge, pantry & granite island?

 We have the classic version on the left. In the 1991 version on the right, dad is leisurely strolling with the pram in the neighborhood. Notice the updated range in the kitchen. The kitchen nearly doubled in size. A lady farmer replaces the scarecrow in the fields. It even shows her driving a tractor with a large bow on her head in another picture. The police "officer" is a woman.  Firefighter replaced the term of fire"man". Letter Carrier instead of mail"man". I had to crack up when the "pretty stewardess" had a  name change to flight attendant. At least they kept the Busytown child riding on a classic radio flyer trike. I'm in love with red classic bikes;) The bobbing balloon tied on the back has to symbolize a ride to the shoe store for saddle oxfords. Or, did they take a trip to the soda fountain for a Coke float? At least that's how it plays out in my imagination. The gender roles in this book have changed drastically, wouldn't you say?

The change that is the most annoying in my humble opinion is this excerpt. Since when did prompt obedience become old fashioned and out of date?  What is so wrong with promptness anyway?  It's amazing that they didn't include that Busytown bear refused to stop playing his video game so mom let him decide when he wanted to come to the table. He texted her demanding dessert..ha! We will not own an updated version of this Busytown book.
The "old school" in me thinks it's ok to rush to the table when called.

For now, we'll bask in our more classic edition with traditional roles. They won't know any different.

 

There is nothing wrong with dreaming about being a wonderful domestic queen.