Reading memories

I've gotten into the routine of going to the library every week with Todd to select an armload of new books to tide him over the week. While I was busy looking for selections in the children's section, I also wandered off into the youth section and came across many old, familiar titles of books I had read and enjoyed as a child. Since it had been well over 20 years since I'd read many of these, I thought I'd relive my childhood and re-read them. And I must say-- what a difference a couple of decades makes! It made me realize how much my worldview has changed since I was a child. Back then, my limited life experience painted completely different pictures in my mind of the stories I read. This was especially true of the "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, because her writing was always so descriptive of the minutiae of her surroundings. In the eyes of a little girl (Laura Ingalls, and little Helly as a reader), the world and even the little houses seemed so vast and big. As I got older, those same mental pictures were colored with the perspective of an older, bigger person-- an adult.

My most recent forays into childhood favorites included the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary. I remembered snapshots of parts of each story in my head, so memories came flooding back when I re-read the stories again for the first time in 20+ years. Again, the mental pictures the stories evoked now were a little different from the ones that developed when I was little. And now that I have a little kid of my own, the stories, which always expressed Ramona's point of view, really take on a new dimension.

I enjoyed "The Incredible Journey" even more now because my love of animals has grown so much since then. I now marveled at the ingenuity and resourcefulness of "The Boxcar Children", whereas years ago I simply got lost in the details of their day-to-day living: the food, the furniture, the scavenged dishes.

I even decided to try a classic that I hadn't read at all before: "Caddie Woodlawn", contemporary to Laura Ingalls. And while the Little House series will remain a perennial favorite, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Caddie. It wasn't, as I expected, another version of Laura Ingalls, it was completely different, and both stories are enjoyable in their own right.

While the memories of what exactly I read were only piecemeal until now, the things that certain books evoked are long-lasting:
"The Babysitters Club" series inspired me to try to start my own babysitting club in my neighborhood.
Ramona Quimby's campaign to stop her father from smoking in "Ramona and her Father" inspired me to do the same with my uncle, who was visiting around the time I read the book. Some of the ideas were drawn from the book, as well-- such as putting up "no smoking" signs all over the house.
"Bread and Butter Indian" started my love affair with eating bread with white sugar on top, as it sounded so savory when the girl in the story enjoyed it as a treat.
In high school my best friend and I were avid readers of Nancy Drew, and she and I would devise our own mystery stories, starring ourselves (with different names, of course) as the protagonists.

I've been taking many strolls back into memory lane this past few weeks, thanks to the selections at our local library. It's been a blast having old memories resurface and become refreshed with a new point of view. I have a feeling I'll be making more visits to the library even while Todd is away during winter break!

What are some of your childhood favorites?