A Line From Flaubert

** This frigid winter has been an excuse for me to catch up on my reading list and finish a few book reviews for area libraries.** 

One of my trips to the Rushville Public Library produced a surprising gem the other day.

One of the young adult books I had chosen was set in historic France. Recent historic France. As in post WWII. 

It was a Robert Cormier short novel. 

Tunes For Bears To Dance To. 

http://images.bookreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/book_main/covers/0440219035.jpg

Have I been living under a rock? Is this a new classic? If not, I think it should be.

This short novel was quite a surprise to me.

From the beginning one can guess at a few different paths the plot would take. Honestly though, until very near the end I did not guess the deeper meaning Cormier was trying to convey. I admire this twist. I admire this approach to an age old theme because it gripped me right at the heart - and the throat - and made me think.

Here are the real tragedies and atrocities that life hands out indiscriminately to us, young and old; and Cormier’s story makes these two main points:

1    1. Recognize real evil DOES walk the face of this Earth.

      2. How you interact with this real evil effects EVERYONE.

The inner struggles of this eleven year old boy, Henry Cassavant, highlight the true mess that life really is. They highlight the million decisions each person must make every day, whether they want to or not. Cormier points out in details along the way that doing nothing IS a decision; it allows something to proceed and it allows something to cease.

Doing nothing is an acceptance of the status quo. Henry is faced with nothing new, but he grows, making decisions that are NOT accepting of the status quo. Three major areas of his life play out, that at first, propel him along on a path he has no control of. Then slowly, acts of evil, which on the surface look to destroy this child, actually inspire Henry to make decisions- little bit by little bit- that change lives around him for the better. Henry himself and the others are not even aware of the larger importance of his decisions.

Henry’s interactions with his employer, Mr. Hairston and his friend, Mr. Levine set in motion waves of action that reveal the age old faces of evil, victimization, and heroism. Cormier shows us that the small, quiet, humble heroes in life are larger than evil, larger than any publicly celebrated hero, or mythological knight in shining armor.

What does this book have to do with Whitewater Valley history you ask? 

Well, nothing really...and everything. 

We history buffs like to say if you do not study history you are doomed to repeat it. History is about the past, the present, and the future actually. You study the past, apply its lessons to the present - to have an improved future. 

Many changes need to happen in the Whitewater Valley. 

What interactions can YOU initiate in your beautiful valley by the river?

Instead of wallowing in the aftermath of downturns, like Henry Cassavant decide to not be SAD. 

Decide to DO something.

DO SOMETHING.

"Now Is Now"

As I previously posted, our bedtime story veered off the Wizard of Oz path for a while to revisit Laura Ingalls Wilder and share my connection to that life from my childhood with my daughter.

Since I was a small girl I was inspired by the stories that Ms. Wilder set down to pen for us so many years after the fact. I am happy to learn that my now 7 year old daughter and I both love these stories. Here in East Central Indiana in 2014 life is so very different than what Ms. Wilder experienced.

But yet again, is it?

For many of us rural dwellers life has many of the same rhythms it always has, being guided along by the seasonal nature of rural life. Even those of us who live in small towns that dot the Indiana State roads and highways are still aware of the seasonal changes in activities around us. Who has not had to wait for 15 minutes as a mile long train unloads or loads its freight of grain into or out of a silo standing as the castle turrets guarding a life that is all but vanished? How many farming implements back up traffic on heavily travelled rural state roads at certain times of year?

Most of us are well acquainted with the story of the Ingalls and Wilder families due to the popularity of the television series that aired in the 1970’s. I have been surprised at what new things I have learned rereading these stories throughout my life.

Little House in the Big Woods starts out in the autumn of 1871 and a grown up Laura retells her life in that continual ebb and flow that goes along with living a life dictated by the seasons. She leaves us off by the completion of a whole year in the life of the little girl in the little house in the big woods.

My own parents raised my siblings and me on a sixty five acre farm in south western Fayette County, Indiana during the 1960's and 1970’s. As my parents were raised in large part by grandparents born roughly in the 1880's, I had the unique experience of living a life where I could recognize Laura’s in my own.

My childhood home along Garrison Creek in southwestern Fayette County, Indiana.

I recognized Laura watching her Ma, Grandma and Aunts execute the hundreds of tasks around their homestead by just watching Mom, Grannie Katie, Aunt Estie, Cousin Bertie and countless others taking care of our own homesteads in the 20th century.

I recognized Laura being in awe of the courage and strength of her Pa, Grandpa, and Uncles by watching Dad, Grandpa Mack, Uncle Jim, Cousin Frank and Cousin Bert in all their old ways and morals in providing for their families.

Our huge barns were built in the mid 1800’s, there was a smoke house, several smaller century old chicken coops, corn cribs and other general purpose buildings built by well skilled German immigrant hands. My Quaker great grandfather’s tools were in the workshop of the barn and being used in the fields and pastures all around our place.  As a matter of fact, my older brothers enjoy attending antique tractor shows and being able to impress the older farmers with inside knowledge on just how to use, operate, and repair those old restored implements on display.

I am pleased to be learning from Ms. Wilder even yet. This time around reading the Little House in the Big Woods to my young daughter at bed times I discovered my now favorite part of the book that I had neglected until now.

The last scene in the book is one like any other a hundred times before. Laura lay awake in the trundle bed at night while Ma is knitting by firelight and Pa is playing his fiddle and singing softly the words to Auld Lang Syne:

“ 'What are days of auld lang syne, Pa?'

'They are the days of a long time ago, Laura. Go to sleep now.'

…she looks at her parents and the fire and listens to the approaching winter wind in the night and thinks to herself, 

'This is now.…all these things could not be forgotten ... because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.' ”

OH, Suzanna! : Books and Patty Pan

After returning from the Rushville Public Library, and having a nice chat with Sue Otte this evening, my daughter and I settled in for the bedtime story ritual we have had since the day she was born.

http://www.educationquizzes.com/blog-for-parents/2013/06/the-power-of-words/

Now, most of the summer and fall months of 2013 were spent bent over one of the volumes of the Wizard of Oz series we found in the stacks of the children's section.

By Christmas we were a bit worn out with all the gallivanting that Dorothy and her friends had done so we decided to break off a bit and try Laura Ingalls Wilder.

My seven year old daughter is delighted to hear that these stories were created from true events in Ms. Wilder's life.

After all, my daughter aspires to be a prolific author herself. 

And she is well on her way already!

We started with Little House in The Big Woods tonight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_House_in_the_Big_Woods

My daughter interrupts continually to ask of me the meaning of foreign sounding terms:

"On Saturdays, when Ma made bread, they each had a little piece of dough to make into a little loaf. They might have a bit of cookie dough too, to make into cookies, and once Laura even made a pie in her patty-pan."

Daughter- WHAT is a PATTY-PAN?! 

Me- You know, patty cake, patty cake? 

Daughter- Noooo-ooo? That's patty CAKE, not patty PAN! 

Me- Well, its getting late and we can look that up first thing in the morning since there is ANOTHER snow day tomorrow! 

So what am I doing? 

Sitting up late at night Googling patty-pan...

Know what I found out? 

(I don't like not knowing an answer to my daughter's questions?! Yes, but that's not the point!)

Patty pans were for patty cakes...patty cakes were....CUPCAKES!

You are probably thinking - Oh, Suzanna! Do you live under a rock?!

Noooo-ooo! I just don't watch much television, obviously!

http://matchbin-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/public/sites/624/assets/3HWZ_Patty_Cakes___Lifestyle_01.jpg

So I keep following the worm holes that the search engines just set as traps for me to be side tracked in research....

until I am sitting up at 1:05 a.m. dunking Pecan Sandies into Irish tea and listening to Acadian Fiddle music wondering if that was what Laura's Pa's fiddle sounded like in that little cabin in the big woods.

Well, I feel much better prepared for THIS first-thing-in-the-morning-convo with the resident 7 year old inquisitor!

I can hear my mother right now:

Oh, Suzanna! Will you just go to bed?! For ONCE in your life?!

sigh....ok.

Good night my friends!

Very important update to this post -

Daughter-Inquisitor woke up the next morning and I eagerly awaited her to sit at breakfast so I could tell her about my discovery on the patty pan subject. 

Upon telling her everything, she just looked up from her plate and asked for ketchup to add to her scrambled eggs.

And added: "That's nice Mom."