Long ago before i started kindergarten there was this wonderful set of books i discovered in the house..a twenty some volume editon of the Book of Knowledge. How i loved to look through it..i could not read the facts and fables..but from the beautiful prints i used my imagination. I used those books for many years. So i was a bookish kid..reading and listening to the radio serials Sky King, Jack Armstrong and so on. Finally my parents said "enough of this, go out and play with the kids in the street." I wonder if they came to regret that...but i was introduced to the astonishing kids world of elementary school sex and violence. Perhaps my parents lead a sheltered life...they seemed to be above what happens in the real world. I prefer the stamps and the books but had to live in the REAL world.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 24 Aug 2019 12:29:42pm
re: How it all began !
I still own my childhood set (1928 copyright) of them, see images below to reminisce!
When I was around 12, I begged my parents to get me a new set of encyclopedias to replace the Books Of Knowledge; a new set of encyclopedias were being offered at the local grocery store (a new volume each week). My mother said she would only get them if I committed to reading and learning each volume. I was up for the challenge so she began buying one each week and then she would test me after I had read it. She was hard on me, finding obscure things and sending me back to do more reading when I got things wrong.
Don
I still remember a family copy of the World Book Encyclopedia copyright 1962. I keep looking at encyclopedia sets at a Half Price Bookstore in the area but my wife is on a book and DVD collection downsizing kick which means a purchase would cause more issues that it is worth! I use Wikipedia frequently online and have bought a couple of CD/DVD based encyclopedias over the years but they were never a good substitute for the paper versions. I had a number of opportunities to visit various college libraries during college visits for the kids over the past ten years and thoroughly enjoyed opportunities to peruse reference collection sets when available.
Countless rainy afternoons were spent browsing the 1950 Encyclopedia Britannica set. Aside from the multi-volume text that was interesting, I also like the color pages sprinkled throughout: Gems, rocks, flags, etc.
Bruce
Don, mine are from 1931..i am trying to figure the ancestry...my mothers parents were peasants from the Dolomites..they learned German in school and their Italian dialect at home,but by 12 years old everyone was working full time on the land or an apprentice,that was the end of their education. I doubt if a encyclopedia salesman could get Nona to part with her money for a set of books.
I remember my grandparents set of encyclopedias. It seems like yesterday. My grandfather was born in Highpoint, Tennessee in 1918. He quit school in the 6th grade to go to work to help feed his sisters and eventually spent 25 years in the army retiring as Master Sergeant. At some point, the army decided that everyone had to have at least a GED to stay in. Grandpa was sweating bullets as he studied for the test but was so proud when he passed and earned his General Equivalency Diploma. He bought a nice set of encyclopedias for his family. I spent many hours with those books. I guess they got tossed out in one of the moves. I wish I had them now.
i did not know about the GED requirement...boy things have changed since 1958. I was in good shape with a High School Diploma but some of the kids that joinned just so they would not be homeless would have had a hard time.
Ah, the era of the door to door encyclopedia salesman! Parents ponied up big money on contract sales they couldn't afford to avoid their children becoming illiterate idjits!
Both sets of my grandparents fell for the hype and both of my parents owned their very own set of encyclopedias from the late 1930s to mid 1940s. Those sets followed them to our home and my earliest memories were doing research in those volumes. My parents reasoned they were "good enuf" for me and my sister until my 1966 report on Germany where I listed one Adolph Hitler as the president!
Those encyclopedia books I remember (a blue bound set from 1951) were actually purchased for my older brother and sister; retained of course. I also remember my parents buying me one book per week of the Encyclopedia Britannica (much slimmer) at the local A&P. I poured over both sets.
Bruce
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