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ArishMell · 70-79, M
Two books; one given to me by our form-teacher in Infant's School as a leaving present when Dads' work move forced us and very many other familes to up sticks and move to a new area some 100 miles away. I was six at the time.
They are Winnie The Pooh, and a remarkably wide-ranging anthology called The Junior Week-end Book.
The latter is remarkable too for the intellectual, academic, interest and practical abilities, its writers evidently assumed as matter-of-fact for its intended readership, I think any and all children aged probably about 8 to early-teens.
A chapter of songs includes the properly-notated music. That of poems give ones written with adult readers in mind; similarly with a chapter of passages extracted from novels.
The Puzzles are of a level used in IQ Tests and as brain-teasers for grown-ups.
Want to build a simple wooden boat? No, "Ask your Dad to cut the wood to these lengths" - you do it. Presumably Dads of the era trusted their offspring with their expensive saws, though home carpentry tools were unlikely to have been powered ones in the mid-1950s when the book was published.. Intriguingly the instructions stop short of sealing the hull before you go off playing Swallows And Amazons on the nearest waterway, but I think the book does have a section on swimming.
Or toffee? The recipe evidently assumes any ten-year-old can stir simmering pans of molten sugar and butter without mishap... And so on. Sugar was no longer rationed, the book reminds us. I do admit our Mam helped me with the toffee-making... Perhaps I'll try it again one day now I am of Grandad's age so perhaps can be trusted to boil sugar all on my own.
And to saw wood to marked lines, though I won't attempt the boat..
They are Winnie The Pooh, and a remarkably wide-ranging anthology called The Junior Week-end Book.
The latter is remarkable too for the intellectual, academic, interest and practical abilities, its writers evidently assumed as matter-of-fact for its intended readership, I think any and all children aged probably about 8 to early-teens.
A chapter of songs includes the properly-notated music. That of poems give ones written with adult readers in mind; similarly with a chapter of passages extracted from novels.
The Puzzles are of a level used in IQ Tests and as brain-teasers for grown-ups.
Want to build a simple wooden boat? No, "Ask your Dad to cut the wood to these lengths" - you do it. Presumably Dads of the era trusted their offspring with their expensive saws, though home carpentry tools were unlikely to have been powered ones in the mid-1950s when the book was published.. Intriguingly the instructions stop short of sealing the hull before you go off playing Swallows And Amazons on the nearest waterway, but I think the book does have a section on swimming.
Or toffee? The recipe evidently assumes any ten-year-old can stir simmering pans of molten sugar and butter without mishap... And so on. Sugar was no longer rationed, the book reminds us. I do admit our Mam helped me with the toffee-making... Perhaps I'll try it again one day now I am of Grandad's age so perhaps can be trusted to boil sugar all on my own.
And to saw wood to marked lines, though I won't attempt the boat..