The upcoming week is Banned Book Week. I first learned about it recently while listening to the Stuff You Should Know podcast. Certainly I could write my thoughts about the sad state of people trying to keep knowledge, history and literature from everyone. It often is one or a few that ruin it for the rest of the community.
However, I wanted to share some autobiographical stories related to censorship. The first is about a family favorite movie. I grew up loving Field of Dreams. I certainly enjoy the sentimental family and baseball story lines and will be filled with emotion when Ray asks his father for 'a catch' at the end of the film. That said, the part that makes me smile is where Annie defends Terence Mann's books against Beulah's rantings. "Step aside, you Nazi cow!"
One of the topics discussed on the podcast mentioned above was the many instances of books and authors being banned at one time or several. An author in this list was adored by one of the podcast hosts and myself. On one day of fourth grade, there was a substitute teacher in Ms. Frandsen class. After lunch, when math session should have started, he read a frightening story from one of Alvin Schwartz's book. My interest was piqued. I checked out all of his books containing a collection of scary stories. They kept me up at night as a read and as I was afraid of what lurked in the shadows and creaks in the house.
Since my sisters and I were not the type of children to be liked enough to have friends, we spent time with each other. We watched movies and television together. We took roles in make-believe in neighborhood and house settings with each other. We did sports together outside including having the younger of my two sisters run around the house as we time her laps. And from a young age, we would put on plays that we would create. I had shared with them the story Clinkity-Clink from one of Mr. Schwartz's books. We put on a rousing display of acting with a grave digger stealing coins off a dead woman's eyes.
The three of us are currently looking for a venue to put on the 15th anniversary reunion show. Contact me if your Halloween party is interested.
