Betty Birney’s Blog

This is a book I actually owned, which means it must have been a gift. Most book gifts came from my paternal grandmother, from whom I inherited my love of books and playing piano. I loved the idea of this book more than the book. I liked the title, liked the illustrations but I don’t think I was crazy about the story.

Like the books in my last post, it has a lot of text. The only reason I’m including it in the post is that again, as with the previous books, there are triplets in it! Three identical girls. I’m only guessing that the Flicka, Dicka, Ricka and Snip, Snapp, Snurr books were so popular, triplets were “in.” Funny, because multiple births were less common than today. And they were always identical triplets, which I’m sure are very rare.

 I liked the triplets, I liked the puppy story in this book, but I wanted to like it more!

When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, like most middle class families, we didn’t own a lot of books. I’m sure there were bookstores in downtown St. Louis, but in the suburbs, which were relatively new, they weren’t around yet. You could buy books at a department store, though. I remember being taken to Famous-Barr to get my Girl Scout Handbook. Department stores had everything back then – even bakeries and household goods such as soap. The bookstore there was somewhat limited but they sold Nancy Drew and popular series. Let’s face it, there weren’t as many people back then and there weren’t as many books. So … we went to the library.

Even before the bookmobile came to our suburban town of Affton, my parents took us to libraries in the city – mostly near where both sets of grandparents lived. While my older sister, Janet, was already checking out chapter books, I was still too young to read, so I browsed the picture books. There were two popular series of books that I checked out time and time again. They were by a Swedish author/illustrator named Maj Lindman and involved two sets of triplets. The boy triplets were Snipp, Snapp, Snurr. What three or four-year old wouldn’t enjoy saying those names? The girls were Flicka, Ricka and Dicka. The series were completely separate but they were very similar. The identical triplets in both series were very blonde and dressed identically. Although I didn’t realize it then, the stories were somewhat similar in theme, but the settings varied.

Even back then, they were old-fashioned. Originally published in the 1930s, the books featured peasants and farm life – women in long skirts and bandanas, plenty of cows!

Many of the stories revolved around the triplets (either set) wanting to earn some money to share something but often ending up sharing their bounty with others. They got into mischief but never did anything bad – merely careless. In the book pictured, they pick strawberries for money, get lost, go to a cottage (of strangers!) and ask for help. The family who helps them is poor (but clean – that’s stressed) and when the girls get their money they buy a dress for the little girl in the cottage and a teddy bear for her baby brother. Mother brings a basket of goodies.

The books are all in print again (available on Amazon.com) and give you a glimpse back to a time that was much more innocent.

The book at left is a little different – the sun is an actual character, as you can see, and there’s not a lot of story. However, it would be a great way to introduce the cycle of nature and food to a young child. Even though I was so young, I do know that it was the art that drew me to these books – not the story. I have vague recollection of joy at finding a Snipp, Snapp, Snurr or Flicka, Ricka, Dicka book on the shelf.

By the way, these books have a lot more text than contemporary picture books, which I think was quite typical. Maybe parents had more time to read to their children back then – what do you think?

The arrival of summer brings back so many wonderful childhood memories: long days of playing in the yard with friends,  playing games inside the house with friends, swimming, roller skating, jump rope, hopscotch,  jacks,walking to the movies, and reading! I read all year, but there was even more time for books in the summer. My whole family read in our respective beds every night – I remember calling out to my parents’ bedroom and spelling a word so they would tell me what it was.

When I was very young, there was no library in Affton, then a relatively young suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. My parents took my sister Janet and me into the city to libraries to check out as many books as we could. My sister recalls that there was a limit and since she was an ardent reader, my parents had to take her to more than one branch to get enough books to last the week. I really wasn’t reading then, but I do remember the books I checked out, many of them time and time again.

But by the time I was in full reading mode, a miracle occurred. Every two weeks, the Bookmobile chugged down Gravois Road in Affton, where I lived, parked next to Affton Drugs and opened its doors! The photos above are exactly the bookmobile I remember. I can still hear the thump of my feet on the wooden steps. In the summer, Janet and I would walk to the bookmobile, arms filled with books both coming and going. It was a long walk by today’s standards but well worthwhile. (We walked everywhere back then by ourselves.)

Oh, what delicious books there were! And the librarians did a good job of stocking the books. So if I read and loved a Little House or Betsy-Tacy or Dr. Doolittle book, another one would appear in a few weeks and a librarian would nudge me in its direction. I took it for granted back then but I now I am so grateful to those angels of the library, looking out for two book-loving girls.

I’m mentioning this for two reasons. One, I believe about 100 librarians were laid off in the Los Angeles Public Library system today (despite a last minute effort at a reprieve), which is a tragedy. The hours are being cut as well. When I go to my local Studio City branch at opening time, there’s always a line of people waiting for the doors to open. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the City Council or Mayor ever go to the library as ordinary citizens to see what really goes on there.

Secondly, I’m going to attempt to go back to my childhood (the 1950s-1960s) and blog about my favorite books from those days, especially those which had a great influence on me as a person and a writer. I’ve not been blogging for a while for several reasons, but I’m going to give it a go … so if you are reading the blog, please take a moment to post a comment!

As my family knows all too well, holiday music is a big deal with me, both listening to it and playing it on the piano.  It’s a key element in the enjoyment of the holiday, going back to my childhood. I’ve amassed quite a collection of holiday music for the CD player, including my beloved and obscure novelty songs, “I Yust Go Nuts at Christms” and “Yingle Bells” by Yogi Yogerson and “Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey” by Lou Monte.

Then there’s my tattered Christmas sheet music from the 50s. They’re all in pretty bad shape. “White Christmas” disintegrated completely but I managed to copy it and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (one of my favorites) is partially gone. There are so many carol books but I far prefer one from my childhood. It’s in shreds but still playable.

Playing piano always makes me nostalgic, though, and last night I thought so much of Mr. Ehrhardt, my wonderful, patient, intuitive piano teacher who taught me theory at age 7 and taught me to improvise. He died in his 40s, a real loss, but his memory is always with me when I play and see his pencil scribbled shorthand on my music. I can still hear him chuckle and say, “That was great! Now let’s play it the way it’s written.” He saw early on that I had a knack for improvisation and he led me that way, while always insisting I also had pieces that had to be played the way they were written, too.

So, humming as I write, I say “Happy holidays” to one and all. Whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you have a song in your heart this year.

Answer to last post’s mystery question: it’s a magnolia tree seed pod. The tree is actually in our neighbor’s yard. We frequently see the pods themselves but I’ve never seen those red M&M looking seeds before. Except for the skunks (and mosquitoes, etc.) nature is pretty grand.

Especially the owl I hear at 3 and 4 in the morning when I take Desi out in the front yard. It’s usually off in the distance but was really close night before last.

But there’s more drama than skunks and owls. Sitting in my quiet little office in the back of the backyard, I heard the loud crash of an avocado bouncing off the roof from the nearby (giant) tree. Actually, we have a very poor crop coming this year because we had the tree trimmed last year. But there was at least big one. I went to my (new) door and was face to face with one of our big, fat, smart squirrels. They really are the hugest squirrels I’ve ever seen, so avocados are definitely fattening.

He took the measure of me, decided to risk everything and check out the fallen avocado. And for the first time, I saw a squirrel carry a very large avocado up the tree. Here’s the sequence:

Squirrel hears the avocado fall

Squirrel sees me, sizes up the situation

Squirrel goes for it anyway

Squirrel gets the prize

By the way, my apologies to those who are iced in. This is Southern California in December but we’re supposed to have cold temperatures (highs in the 50s) the next few days and much needed rain!