Welcome to Flashback Friday!
A couple of weeks ago I had the rare opportunity to browse our town’s GoodWill store by myself while Dirty Harry was at TaeKwonDo class and Jack Henry was napping at home with Bonny Annie keeping watch. I’m so glad because I was feeling particularly insane that day and needed about thirty minutes of alone time, and I found a stack of vintage Little Golden books for $1 each.
I have been on a mission for a number of years to try to find and collect Little Golden books that I remember from my childhood. Some have been reprinted, and I’ve been able to purchase a few of them new. I’ve picked up several at yard sales and flea markets. But this trip to the GoodWill store yielded a “gold” mine in late 70s childhood nostalgia.
Some of my fondest memories are wrapped up within the pages of my Little Golden books. I remember they used to keep several titles near the check-outs at the grocery stores. My mom would often buy me one if I was good in the store that day. It’s a good thing I wasn’t often good in the stores, or I would have a lot more Little Golden books to try to recover now.
This one, a Richard Scarry, was one of my very favorites, and I think I might have screamed when I found it.
It was chockful of fun ideas and illustrations. Like this page…
Now that I think about it, this page was probably the inspiration for that time in first grade that a friend of mine and I decided to illustrate the tops of our desks with markers. The next day I had to take in a butter container filled with Comet and clean all the desks during recess. Ahhhh…the memories!
I think this page probably has had some impact on me as well. Yo ho! Yo he!
In my stack of books, delightedly, I found a couple of Eloise Wilkin titles. *Big sigh* Eloise Wilkin…I just love her.
(And, no, I don’t mind at all that I can’t get that piece of tape off the cover without damaging the book. It probably means that a child was playing library and stuck that on there to categorize his books. As a former library-player, I recognize the handiwork and think it adds to the charm.)
Eloise Wilkin did artwork for many Little Goldens that were popular in the 60s and 70s. Her pictures are charming and dreamy, depicting rosy-cheeked children and pastoral nature scenes.
I would jump in and live in an Eloise Wilkin painting if I could.
I think it is fun to share a little of my childhood with my own kids.
…to let them get a glimpse of a different, but not-so-distant time…
…a time where everyone had unnaturally ruddy cheeks, where it was okay to ride in a car that is being towed, where police officers tailgated military vehicles, and no one who was driving watched where they were going.
Oh, thank you, Josephine for passing on your Little Goldens to the local GoodWill store! They have just tickled me “golden” to find them!
Related links:
The official Little Golden book site
The history of Little Golden books
Some history and information on Eloise Wilkin
