It occured to me today that I did not grow up in a home with a library. Nor were there shelve upon shelve of books. In fact, my memory of the library centers around Jane Van Drasek, the mother of my bestus buddy when I was 5 years old. I suppose she was a homely sort of woman. She was large and huggable as an Easter bunny. Her face would light up whenever she saw me standing on the porch. "Why Barb!" she'd say, as if she hadn't seen me in years and I was the best visitor of her life.

Jane took Jeannie to the library every single Thursday all summer long. And Jeannie was allowed the maximum take- ten books a time! If she had read all ten from the previous week, that is. One life-changing day, Jane invited me along. Mom said, "Sure!" And off I went. It was heaven on earth and I hauled my own stash of ten books home that very night. The sweet perfume of those first books remains with me 5 decades later.

"Mom," I called her this morning. "Mom, what was your favorite book when you were in high school? Or when you were little?"

She giggled that uncertain giggle. "First, I meant to tell you those flowers you sent for Mother's Day are fresh as the day they came!"

"Good to know," I said. "I'm glad. So, what books do you remember reading?"

"Um, Orphan Annie?"

"I think that was a comic book."

"Well, I guess maybe Elaine read books. We didn't have a town library. There was just the little library in the school." There was a pause. "Ray says his favorite was Tom Sawyer."

Another pause.

"We only saw one movie before we graduated from high school. I suppose it was Mrs. Miniver. But we did listen to the radio. Mother would only let us listen to music. The shows were too dumb, she said."

"In school we had long declamations to memorize- stories and poems. My brother Paul was very good at it. He recited 'Yellow dog' all over the neighborhood... Yellow dog he was but bless you, he was just the chap for me, for I'd rather have an inch of dog, than ounce of pedigree!"

I enjoy children's books so much that I spent all morning gleaning lists for this site of books I have known and loved. It makes me sad to realize my mother didn't grow up with the musty scent of books, their texture and type face, the thrill of opening to the first page. By the time I was in sixth grade, I had developed a pattern of reading that set me up to win the award for Most Books Read. I beat my main competitor 103 to 102- third place read something like 72.

I wonder which of the books I've listed within this Hub were on the library shelves at Manvel Grammar School. I have searched sites for this information but have yet to find a site that lists curriculum or reading lists. I did discover this information at kclibrary. (Thank you very much, Bettye Sutton of Lonestar College, Kingwood.

 She wrote, "The 1930's were a perilous time for public education. With cash money in short supply parents were unable to provide their children with the necessary clothes, supplies, and textbooks (which were not furnished in some states) to attend school. Taxes, especially in rural areas, went unpaid. With the loss of revenue, school boards were forced to try numerous strategies to keep their districts operating. School terms were shortened. Teachers' salaries were cut. One new teacher was paid $40 a month for a five month school year - and was very glad for the job!

"When a rural county in Arkansas was forced to charge tuition one year in order to keep the schools open, some children were forced to drop out for that year. One farmer was able to barter wood to fuel the classrooms' potbellied stoves for his four children's tuition, thus enabling them to continue their education. The famous Dick and Jane books that taught millions of children to read were first published in 1931. These primers introduced the students to reading with only one new word per page and a limited vocabulary per book. All who learned to read with these books still recall the 'Look. See Dick. See Dick run.'"

The site didn't write about education in the 1940s, but it did list FACTS about this decade:

* Population 132,122,000 *

Unemployed in 1940 - 8,120,000 *

National Debt $43 Billion *

Average Salary $1,299.

Teacher's salary $1,441 *

Minimum Wage $.43 per hour *

55% of U.S. homes have indoor plumbing *

Antarctica is discovered to be a continent *

Life expectancy 68.2 female, 60.8 male *

Auto deaths 34,500 *

The decade opened with the appearance of the first inexpensive paperback. Book clubs proliferated, and book sales went from one million to over twelve million volumes a year. Many important literary works were conceived during, or based on, this time period, but published later.