April 21, 2011
Having my grandson's here overnight was the highlight of my week. Observing them and talking with
them is so precious. We were looking at some very old books I have and some were my first grade
readers. Both of them carefully handled the of worn out books with dirty covers and brittle brown pages
as if they were treasures. They were looking at the copyright dates to see how old the books were.
Some were printed in the late 1800's. One in particular was a small pocket size dictionary printed in
Chicago. The cover was stained as if it had been wet and the pages were extremely fragile. I noticed that
the older one was studying the book and touching the cover and turning it over and over in his little 10
year old hands.
As he carefully searched for a copyright date he said 'do you suppose' it survived the Chicago fire?
I told him that is how ideas then become a story to write.
