I Actually Owned This Book, As A Child!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   I think this book was given to me, by my mother, thanks to her friend, Dotty Kramer, (pronounced Krah-mer) who was a third grade teacher, at the time.  As young as I was, I could tell it was an antiquated book, but the look of the pictures, and the tone fascinated me.  Today, I would find them hilarious.  Wish I still had the book.

                                    The idea of children taking care of themselves was conveyed in a year in the lives of two siblings, Jack and Dorothy.  They were a scream.  Jack dressed in suspenders, with his hair styled so that he looked like a prematurely middle aged man.  Dorothy was almost the opposite; she looked, and dressed, like Shirley Temple, on the cusp of puberty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     Their mother would take them to lunch in town, where, for health's sake, they had lunch somewhere, dining on soup, fruit salad, and milk,  Their mother paid the bill, and I am convinced, healthy as this meal might be for me, an oldster, today, it was too little for growing children.  I think selection here was more a matter of budgetary constraints.

                                       Then there was Aunt May, who, of course, was a spinster.  When invited to the house, for dinner, she always brought a bag of big sugar cookies, for Jack and Dorothy. She said she did it because of the children's good eating habits; ie; table manners.  I think she did it because those kids were not getting enough to eat.

                                          During Summer vacation, Jack and Dorothy never went anywhere but home.  More budgetary constraints, but also being groomed for a life of domestic conformity.  And before puberty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           I wish there had been a follow up to Jack and Dorothy once they hit puberty.  Bet Jack ended up smoking, and wearing a black leather jacket, while Dorothy hiked up her skirts, exposed her garters, smoked, wore make-up, and went all the way with the boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            Aunt May, by then would have been in a convent, with a bunch of closeted, lesbian nuns.

                                            And the mother would have no idea how this all came about!

                                           See what our childhood books can teach us????????????????