The Hodgepodge Book

Rating:
Summary: A cherished book from my childhood
Review: As a child in the early 1970s, I attended C. H. Bird Elementary in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, a modern school with superb facilities and teachers (tip of the hat to Mr. Frank Peot, best teacher I ever had). Bird School had an outstanding library, and my first lengthy encounters with Beverly Cleary, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Charles Schulz were conducted there. But my favorite book in the entire library was "The Hodgepodge Book", filled with stories, jokes, games, and American folklore. I checked that book out countless times, fascinated with such things as advice on how to get rid of a sty (stand in the middle of a crossroads and recite "Sty, Sty, leave my eye; go to the next one passing by.") and the amazing knuckle calendar (to keep track of the long and short months of the year). I thought it was the greatest book in the world, and perhaps for that time and place, it was. This book reminds me of a time, long ago, when I was young, a East Coast city boy experiencing the rural Midwest for the first time. A time when playing hide & seek in a cornfield was an all-day event, and a 6-foot snowdrift was a welcome sight to a little boy's eyes. And not only a time, but a place: Sun Prairie (what a great name for a Midwest town!) was the sort of place where the arrival of spring was heralded by boys and girls getting their marbles out of storage and having intense playground marble competitions; a place of spelling bee champs (the 1974 state champ came from Bird School), annual corn festivals, free milk & peanut butter sandwiches in the lunch room, and fresh air and good people. It was sort of geeky, and completely "small town" . . . but nice. When I look back on it, Sun Prairie was the last chance I had to really be a kid, before moving again and facing the onset of junior high and all of the pressures involved. "The Hodgepodge Book" totally reflected that playful, comfortable, small-town spirit, and that's why I love it (and still read it) today. It took me literally years to find a copy, but it was worth the time and effort, and now it is one of my most prized possessions.