Sepia Saturday 460...Porches and Readers

Sepia Saturday 460 ...If ever there was a screened in porch as big as the prompt porch in my file of family porch photos, my Mother must have been sitting (not reclining) there reading.  Since she was the eye behind all of the pictures there are no screened in porch pictures.
       There are however, a few porches that serve as backgrounds like this one of my Dad and Dan. 
"Golden horses - that's what they call the palominos. And palominos have quite a history. You know, the history of my own palomino began right here at this ranch.  If I hadn't-a gone through that gate a few years back, I'd never have gotten my pal, Trigger."  Roy Rodgers, My Pal Trigger (1946).
     My Dad could have just as well spoken those words and been Roy Rodgers' double.  He and Roy had a lot in common beginning with their love of Palomino's.
      Their origin can be traced back to the Crusades and were often the choice of steed for many royal leaders.  Queen Isabella of Spain was so captivated by the Palomino's golden beauty, she wanted them to live on, breed and spread throughout the New World.
     From Mexico to Texas and throughout the Southwest the Palomino was the Native American Indian's choice of a mount for hunting and traveling.

     Not so much a porch, but more a stoop, Mother stood me there for what I can only imagine was a back to school day.
     In 1957, Saddle Oxfords were the trend in the ugliest, longest lasting shoes mother's could buy to put on a knobby knees, big foot ten year old. Notice, too, the rolled down Bobbie Socks.
     Then there was new jumper dress hot off her Singer sewing machine.  If anything was store bought it would have been the puff sleeved, Peter Pan collared blouse.
     I sure hope the wind was blowing and my hairdo was not a ponytail stuck on the side of my head.  It was also a back to school tradition to get a Toni perm rolled on the smallest rods made and always over processed. 
     Come to think of it...the wind was probably not blowing.  That wad of hair on the side was an attempt to hide the frizzed hair.
    
     As I mentioned, my Mother was a reader.  We didn't have a lot of what I would call Classic Literature reading material at home.
      More like the newspaper, paperback novels and westerns...Zane Grey was my Dad's favorite author. 
     Even at 35 cents, Better Homes and Gardens would have been a luxury coffee table piece of literature in 1959. 
     I can just imagine my Mother's gasp of shock at my paying $5 for this copy to add to my collection of Magazine Ephemera.

     When I came across Better Homes and Garden's  'Feature' book review of recently published books in 1959, I was surprised by several of the titles. 
Doctor Zhivago ,Charlotte's Web and The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters. 
     As I read the 'Feature', I was struck by the timelessness of these words written in 1959..."The great ease with which books are turned out these days, for all that might be said for it, imposes on the casual reader an almost insurmountable task of selection.
     Not so long ago, a man had time to read most of those volumes that pleased him, or at least the ones his salary could afford.  Today, with a busier society and a more exhaustive and inexpensive choice, he has trouble keeping up with the reviews, let alone the books to which they lead."
      I am only 56 years late in reading Gordon Greer's Review of Doctor Zhivago, Charlotte's Web and The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, but read them I did.  About Doctor Zhivago he wrote...Boris Pasternak, the latest Nobel award winner, was kept from making an acceptance speech when the Soviet Government forced him to reject the prize.  A partly autobiographical, largely disenchanted study of Russia during the author's lifetime, Doctor Zhivago represents one man's willingness to stand up and be counted.  It is not an easy book.  It is a good one, though, written with great eloquence, and deserves everyone's attention.
     I wholeheartedly agree with Greer's review on Doctor Zhivago...it was not easy.  I won't read it again, but I may download The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters.  Greer describes it as a robust novel of a journey from Kentucky to California taken in 1849 by Sardius McPheeters and his 14 year old son Jamie.  Right down my history reading alley!!!

FYI...The Travels of Jamie McPheeters in 1959...$4.50   Today on Amazon Kindle $14.39/paperback $21.69.  I am on my way to the public library.  I'd rather turn pages! 

How about you?

Read any good books lately?