Mom's School Books & a Giveaway

4/30/2012

Have you ever wondered what your parents learned in school?

My mom knows I like books, especially old ones, and she gave me a box of them a while back. I found them again while looking for some old photo albums.

It wasn't until I opened them that I realized they were her old Grade 7 & 8 school books.

Arithmetic

If you've been following Mamma's Memoirs which I presented in four parts, you'll know my mom was Mary, the middle Kakkonen daughter. However, when they started school, Pappa and Mamma changed their last name to Henrekson. At least that's how Mamma wrote it in her Memoirs.

On this post, I'll show you how my mom wrote it as Mary Hendrickson.

The image to the left and below is Mom's Arithmetic book. What strikes me as funny is the stickers. I didn't know they had stickers back in the 50's. If you look close, the stickers say, "Made in Czechoslovakia." I wonder where she got them.

Composition and Grammar

Canadian History

British History

Seasonal Activities

Okay, this one had me stumped until I looked at the topics. I believe this is for art.

Reader: Over the Bridge

Mathematics

Literature?

Dark Horse is a novel so I'm assuming it was a literature class. It lists my mother, Mary, and her brothers, William and David, which signifies it was handed down. Since William - or Billy as everyone called him - died in a highway accident when he was only 16 (as mentioned in part 4 of Mamma's Memoirs) this is the only thing I have that ever belonged to him. I never met my Uncle Billy as Mom was carrying me at the time of the accident.

Also, the name at the top of this page, Grace Spillenaar, brings warm memories to mind because the Spillenaar family was very good friends with Mamma while they lived in the area. A missionary family, the Spillenaars moved a few hours south to Round Lake where they started a ministry preaching the gospel to the Inuit. I remember John and Tyyne Spillenaar’s bush plane with "Wings of the Gospel" written on the side. John Spillenaar is the founder of Arctic Missions Outreach.

However, what got me wondering if this book really was for literature class was the book itself. If you read the first page below, the character has smoked his cigarette to the stub and is wishing he had a cold bottle of beer. In a Grade 8 school book? Really?

This may not have been a school book. I have half a dozen books which my mom bought as an adult through the Doubleday Book Club and she wrote her name in the front of each one.

With Mom using these books in 1951/52 means they're over 60 yrs old. Wow.

Mary Hendrickson, 13 yrs old, 1951

Do you collect old books?
What is the oldest one you have?
What is the oldest one you'd like to have?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, May 6th
to be entered in a draw for a book from my giveaway pile.
Winner's Choice.
The pile contains an assortment of books including inspirationals, mainstream, autobiographies, self-help, and devotionals.
If you're the winner, I'll email you the list and you can pick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

27 Comments

DebH

5/4/2012 02:23:50 am

Hey there Anita
I love reading about old books. I wish I had some from when my mom was growing up - but she tends to do occasional "junk" purges, so I think those were lost to a thorough spring cleaning at some point of my childhood. My mom liked to give things away to people who needed them. I remember a set of Childcraft Encyclopedia books that she gave away without telling me. I had wanted them for when I had children but never told her that *sigh*

Your mom was quite pretty. I love seeing all the photos.

Can't say what my oldest book is... I know I did rescue a couple from mom's purges. We've got a few books from Don's mom from when he was a child. I try not to collect books because I've too many already and not enough space for storage. *heh*

Sorry it took so long to get to this post. Been wrapping up end of semester stuff with students. (some aren't too happy with their grades... imagine that)

Anita Mae

5/4/2012 06:13:36 am

Hey Deb, nice seeing you here. I was getting lonely. Because I only have a list of books for a winner to choose from, I haven't promoted this week's post on any loops or sites except for Facebook. It sure looks like the drawing card is the free book.

Anyway, back to you... I know what you mean about not telling your mom because for the longest time, I didn't want to tell mom what I wanted of hers because it seemed kind of crass - like I was waiting for her to move into a senior's home or something. And yet, one day she called and said she was moving and needed to have a week long garage sale. ACK! That sure made up my mind.

I didn't have to tell her about the books though, because she knew from when I was small that books were my security blanket. Ha!

The other thing she knew was that I bought myself a small instamatic camera when I was in my early teens and spent most of my money on film. Plus, she knew I was interested in the family genealogy.

As a writer yourself, I'd welcome a post from you about those older books that you rescued from your mom and those from Don's mom. So many things have changed in the publishing world. I like showing what used to be.

Thanks again for dropping in. :)

debH

5/5/2012 08:38:13 am

your mom was a lefty? left handedness has always been considered bad because it supposedly meant the person was criminally minded or something along those lines. i'm a lefty, so i've looked into it a bit. my grandfather always tried to get me to do things with my right hand even though my mom let me do things however i wished. as a result, i'm a little bit both-handed. it looks like Guppy favors his left hand for drawing and writing, but he pretty much uses both hands so he can get into trouble that much faster *heh*

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 02:40:46 pm

You're absolutely right, Deb. Mom said when she was in school, the teacher told the boy behind her to pull her braids if she wrote with her left hand. :(

And that goes to show how dumb people were back then because you have a gift of artistry. I wondered how that would've worked out if you actually followed their leanings and chose to do everything right handed. Do you think you'd still be an animator today?

Mary Curry link

5/5/2012 06:13:43 am

Hi Anita,
I don't particularly collect old books but my husband has a bunch he inherited from his mother. One is an 1860's copy of Godey's Lady's Book. I love that one.

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 07:02:25 am

Oh, good! The comments are working again.

Hello Mary, very relieved to see you here. :)

Wow, a real Godey's Lady's Book from the 1860's is certainly a treasure. I can see how useful that would be in research. And yes, I'm thinking that even if you won the Genesis for Contemporary last year, there are still so many ways to use it. Have you written any blog posts about it?

cara lynn james link

5/5/2012 06:14:56 am

I have a cookbook (Fanny Farmer, Boston Cooking School) which was given to my great aunt in 1917. I use it for reference in my historicals.

I used to have a book my grandmother's cousin brought over from Ireland in the 1880's, but I think it got lost during one of our many moves. I haven't seen it around in years.

Anita mae

5/5/2012 07:11:28 am

Hey Cara, I've moved about 20 times too, and I know how easy it is to lose things. We had a 1" fossilized mushroom cap on a shelf in the kitchen that never made it to our new home. :(

Your Fanny Farmer, Boston Cooking School cookbook must come in handy. I know my modern reprint of it does. Except that with some reprinted cookbooks I often wonder what was changed from the original version because they seem to update the ingredients and techniques sometimes so modern cooks understand. I can see their point because it's no use showing an ingredient that isn't available any longer, or that has a different name now. But those original cookbooks can't be beat.

Thanks for sharing, Cara and Mary.

Cathy ( Johnny)

5/5/2012 07:02:15 am

I have many of my mothers books and HER mothers books. A few that belonged to Her mother. The latest one dates back to 1909.
History is VERY interesting to me, and reading about your mom's life is wonderful!!
Can you please let me know if you get this and where can I read more??

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 07:19:42 am

Hey there Cathy, yes, I received this. Thank you for answering. I was very worried about the comment situtation.

That must be wonderful to feel your mom and grandma's books and know they felt them, too. I know I'd be wondering what they thought as they read the same words. That's what I did when I saw mom's signature in all of these... I wondered what she thought as wrote her name and studied from the pages.

Mom said that when she looks at them, however, they remind her of the teachers forcing her to write with her right hand when she was born a leftie. I've always wondered if that was the normal reasoning of the time or a local one. It's hard to imagine a teacher even thinking that now-a-days.

Thanks for stopping by and say hi to Johnny for me.

Lyndee

5/5/2012 08:14:13 am

I have one 'family' book. It's from the 1920s and it's a reader on the President's of the United States. I love the red leather cover, but the binding is in rough shape. It's about 5X7 in size. Woodrow Wilson is the last president featured in the book and he finished his term in 1921. This was an interesting blog, Anita Mae.

And I was able to see this post, obviously, so it's working for me.

Anita mae

5/5/2012 08:48:02 am

Thanks, Lyndee. Yeah, the post was okay, but no one could see the comment form to leave comments, though. I'm inputting tomorrow's Penny Zeller post and finding all kinds of neat changes to the blog. Can't wait to check the rest of the website.

5x7 seems to be a common size for old school books then as that's what they are in the photos above.

Ah - a kindred spirit. I know what you mean about loving the red leather cover of the old reader... I get the same feeling when I handle the brown textured leather covers of my Old West series from Time Life. It was the first thing I ordered in my newly married life after carrying around the subscription ad for 2-3 yrs. Just running my hand over the embossing sends a thrill through me, never mind reading about the exciting people and places within. I guess that's why I write in that era.

Actually, your 1920's reader of the presidents sounds so interesting. Does it go into much depth of their histories? What grade would that have been? I'm sure the binding is worn due to use though, and so that's not a bad thing when you look at it in that perspective. Have you thought of writing a post about it and featuring it here?

Lyndee

5/5/2012 09:09:06 am

Hi Anita Mae,
Well, I found the comment form, twice now, ;), so guess it's working, but I've had that happen on other blogs where the comment box was absent. Of course, I always blame it on my dyslexia. Couldn't be a glitch in the system, right? :) ha ha...

The reader was handed down from my grandmother' to my mother who's now 80. I would have no idea on what year a student would read it, because I've discovered that in their younger years, children read way above the skill level our kids do now. For instance, at ten my dad was reading Charles Dickens in school and I never read that in school until I was well into jr. high. I'm not even certain that it was my grandmother's, only that it was passed down from her side.

I haven't seen this book for about ten years, ever since we moved from IL to NY to NJ and back again to IL! It's still packed safely in a box in the basement. (Makes it a difficult subject to write about here, sorry!)

What I recall about it is that the biographies are about a 1,000-2,000 words per president. The entire book is under 30 pages.

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 12:39:20 pm

LOL Lyndee, I know what you're talking about. I still have a couple boxes of antiques that haven't been opened from 2 moves ago. I know exactly where they are but the little house we live in now doesn't have any room for displaying things. Once the final 2 kids leave will be soon enough to dig then out. I can wait.

That reader about the presidents really does sound interesting. I have such respect for teachers, but especially the ones from long ago who had so many different ages and grade levels in the same class. That type of atmosphere allowed kids to develop in areas best suited for them unlike today when everyone is expected to advance at the same rate due to the sheer numbers involved.

Ladette

5/5/2012 09:21:14 am

I LOVE old books. My husbands grandfather had some OLD Edgar Allen Poe books and I was supposed to get them after he passed. Unfortunately, his house burned down.. and so did the books. Fortunately, he got out just fine. I don't know what my oldest book is, but I do love to look at them. We have several antique stores in town and I love to look at books when I go to them. One of these days I'm going to buy myself a primer.

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 12:50:29 pm

Ladette - you made it. :) Oh, that's terrible about a fire and the Edgar Allen Poe books. So glad your g-FIL got out safely. He must've been devastated. :(

I like looking through old stores, too. It's not exactly a healthy pasttime, but there's something soothing about looking at history.

When you say a primer, do you mean a reader? I've read the term in books and on blogs, but it's not one we use up here. Well, we do, but only when we're painting. :D

Suzie Johnson

5/5/2012 12:07:46 pm

Anita, this is so fun. I love seeing the old books. What is the copyright date on the literature book. I wanted to turn the page and keep reading. Your Mamma has nice handwriting.

Okay, I have to run to my closet and see what my oldest book is. It's a journal by a naturalist, published in 1909. The interesting thing is the man who wrote it died in 1865. I'm not sure when he actually finished his journal, but in the first chapter, his adventure begins in1812.

I also have a 1930 edition of The Complete Works, History, Life and Notes of William Shakespeare. It's bound and printed like a Bible and was given to my dad's sister Christmas, 1933 - my dad was only two months old. I never knew her. She died right after she got married. That my dad gave me this treasure means the world to me.

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 01:39:42 pm

Suzie, the copy of Dark Horse is a 1943 reprint, with a copyright of 1931.

I'm not sure about the copyright of Outdoor Girls on a Hike because that page is missing as shown in the photo. But since it shows Whitman Publishing out of Racine, Wisconsin, it shouldn't be too hard to trace if a person wanted.

And thank you for mentioning my mom's handwriting. I've always loved her script which became for elaborate and elegant as the years went by. Swirls and curls at every point. Each letter defined. Even when they were very young, my children recognized the mail from her as soon as they spotted the envelopes. I don't know if it's because it came naturally or because she tried to compensate for her left-handed script. Can you believe she calls it hen-scratch?

Your naturalist book sounds like someone found the journal and recognized its worth from the content. Good one.

I can see how you'd value the Shakespeare book because of its family history. Those of us who've mentioned having old books here today could be called the family librarians. Even if the books mentioned here in the comments weren't actually used by the family, they were given to us because someone trusted us with their treasures.

Suzie, I'll say the say thing to you that I did to others here - you're welcome to post about your treasures here if you wish. That's the type of family history I envisioned when I started this blog. :)

Suzie Johnson

5/5/2012 02:07:36 pm

Thanks, Anita. I'll see if I can think up something sometime. It would be fun.

So re the Wanderings in South America - yes, someone urged the author to publish his journals because he felt they would be important to science, and the man who did eventually publish them also illustrated.

You know, I love love love my Nook. And you can get books like these on the Nook and Kindle for free. But it's not the same for a book like this. This might be one part of our history that gets lost because of technology. That will be sad.

Anita Mae

5/5/2012 02:33:50 pm

Yes, Suzie, it will be sad, but the good thing about ebooks is that it's hard to destroy once it's in cyberspace.

Anne Payne link

5/6/2012 04:58:34 am

Hi Anita,

I have many old books! Some were my dad's when he was a boy (1930's-40's) and several from my early school days. My favorite from then is a Spelling book. I used it for each of my children when they were in first grade. We homeschool, so it has many memories attached to it now :)
I once had a first edition Anne of Green Gables, but I auctioned it on Ebay.

Anita Mae

5/6/2012 07:21:03 am

Excellent, Anne! A Speller is the one book that's missing from mom's collection - and it's the first thing I looked for because I always loved spelling. I like to think it was so well used it fell apart. But some disgruntled person probably burned it instead. LOL (I live with 2 people who would relish destroying a speller and yet they thrive on Spell-check. Go figure.)

Yes, I can see where old schoolbooks would come in handy for a home schooling situation. Even the old history, geography and science books can be used to teach the differences between then and now. Good for you for teaching your kinds in this way. I have so much respect for parents who home school. Although I wanted to when I was kidless, the reality is that I would have been terrific at the language arts, but lack patience on the math and science side. I congratulate you.

Wait - you sold a first edition of Anne of Green Gables? Wow. That must've been hard. But then who am I to talk... I gave away my hubby's collection of Louis L'Amour hard covers. :(

I appreciate you sharing, Anne. Of course, now I'm curious about your books... LOL

Nancy Farrier link

5/6/2012 08:12:32 am

Anita, I love old books. I think one of my oldest is a book about the Mexican American war that was published in 1850. Some of the older books have beautiful pages and covers. Their binding is so much better than the books of today. Interesting topic.

Anita Mae

5/6/2012 12:49:48 pm

Hey there, Nancy. 1850 is very old! That reminds me of the ones on the TV show, Who Do You Think You Are where famous people search out their genealogy with the help of Ancestry.com.

On that show, we see so many of the people charged with protecting books that are a hundred years earlier than yours that don't even wear gloves to protect the aged papers from the oils we carry on our fingers and hands from modern technology.

I wonder... is your book strictly text or does it have sketches, engravings, etc for visuals?

Thanks for the visit. :)

Anita Mae

5/8/2012 12:30:57 pm

Och! I've been so busy I forgot to pick a winner yesterday. Give me a few mins to log the names onto my spreadsheet and go to random.org and I'll have your winner. (shakes head *need to eat more bananas for my memory)

Anita Mae

5/8/2012 01:02:08 pm

Okay, before I reveal the winner, I wanted to sincerely thank each of you for commenting on my blog. Once I got my new settings figured out, it turned out to be a very fun week.

Also, if any of you would like to write a post about your older books, send me an email using the contact form here on my website and we'll set you up with a date.

Now before I forget, the winner of this weeks giveaway of a book of their choice from my giveaway list is...

Cathy (Johnny)!

Cathy, I'll be contacting you soon with the giveaway list. :)

This week Penny Zeller is talking about her childhood Dreamhouse and giving away a copy of her historical romance, Kaydie.

Nancy Ellen Hird link

5/10/2012 02:53:24 am

Thanks for showing the old school books. Fascinating. They were a window into the values and thoughts of people in a different time. I was particularly interested to see that the British history book had a section about how Christianity came to Britain.

Some years ago I visited in a primary school in Edinburgh and was told that religion was the only required subject. At that time I also attended an assembly. A hymn was sung at the beginning. This was not a private school!

The children I met at the school were bright, funny, thoughtful, articulate, and respectful toward adults and each other. I'd been a classroom teacher (stateside) and I was impressed.
I wondered and still wonder if having religious instruction in a school setting doesn't improve school life. I'm sure people could cite examples of religious instruction harming children, but perhaps those examples are exceptions (which needed correcting) rather than the general experience (which needed preserving).