I was doing some spring cleaning this weekend — OK, so I’m running about 6 months late — when I found an old, fragile copy of The Bobbsey Twins at School, published in 1913. I think I got it after my grandmother died. On the contents page, it said:
W.P.A. DISTRICT No. 4
PACK HORSE LIBRARY
“W.P.A.” is short for Works Progress Administration, later the Works Project Administration, a federal jobs programs created in 1935 during the depths of the Great Depression.
I did a little digging and found a book called Cut Down Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Libraries of Kentucky, by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer. It turns out that the Pack Horse Library project of eastern Kentucky – and it was definitely a Kentucky thing — is considered one of the WPA’s most innovative programs. They say it was aimed at creating jobs for women.
Riding horses or mules, “the book women” might travel 80 miles a week up creek beds and foot paths to reach families who otherwise might not have had access to books (see picture below). The project lasted until 1943.
It’s easy these days to take books for granted.
In fact, one of the reasons we’re doing all this spring cleaning is because we have too many books. Our bookshelves are full, and there’s a growing stack of books in the floor by every bookcase and on the floor by the bed and in the closet. (There are none in the garage or attic, because it’s too humid here in Tennessee.)
If I want a book they don’t have at Barnes & Noble or the library, I’ll buy it online, and a UPS truck will deliver it a few days later. If the price is right, I’ll just download it.
I wonder what “the book women” would have thought about that.
Here in the South, school’s about to start. Up North, classes won’t begin until after Labor Day, but students in some Southern districts go back as early as Aug. 1, meaning, I suppose, that our students will be about a month smarter than your students, so we’ve got that going for us.
I love the Mindset List. It’s a pop culture checklist to remind professors who they’re dealing with. Last year’s list, for example, pointed out that as far as the Class of 2015 was concerned, there has always been an Internet and U.S. tax forms have always been available in Spanish. (I think Beloit’s Mindset List also helps remind professors that they’re getting old.)
What got me thinking about all this was a story I read a couple days ago about record sales. It said old albums are outselling new ones, and I wondered if that’s a generational thing, because my 12-year-old never buys albums. She gets songs on iTunes, and that got me thinking about everything else teens and tweens don’t do that my generation did.
So, No. 1 on the list: Buy an album just to get a single. During the CD era, labels didn’t release a lot of singles. If you liked a song, you bought the album. If the rest of the album sucked, you dubbed it onto cassette and traded it in.
No. 2: Trade in their old CDs. I have no data to back this up, so this is purely anecdotal, but back in the ’90s, it was pretty easy to find new CDs at the used record store. When I swing by used record stores now, it’s mostly crappy music from the ’80s and ’90s. Part of the problem, of course, is that you can’t sell old downloads.
No. 3: Sit by the radio to record their favorite songs on cassette.
No. 4: Record anything on cassette.
No. 5: Sound like a broken record. They don’t know records. Sales of vinyl albums, EPs and singles sales hit 6 million in 2011. CD sales, though, topped 242 million, while legal downloads of albums and individual songs topped 1.4 billion.
No. 6: Use a typewriter.
No. 7: Usea film camera.
No. 8. Use any kind of camera. That’s what smartphones are for.
No. 9: Dial up the Internet.
No. 10: Look forward to hearing, “You’ve got mail!” That was an AOL thing. AOL is still around, but only about 1% of people use it for email,which is about 1% more than I would have guessed.
No. 11: Use email, period. They text.
No. 12: Pick out Mayor McCheese from a lineup. Long story (involving a bunch of lawyers and H.R. Pufnstuf), but the mayor of McDonaldland was recalled in the mid-’80s.
No. 14. Get a free pizza from Domino’s. It’s been 19 years since Domino’s dropped its 30-minutes-or-it’s-free guarantee because of the “public perception of reckless driving and irresponsibility.”
No. 15: Stay up late to watch some random B-movie on the late show. As far as the Class of 2016 knows, late night isn’t for cheesy movies. It’s for talk shows, news shows, sportscenters, ”Seinfeld” reruns and infomercials or streaming shows on Netflix.
No. 16: Stay up late enough to watch a TV station sign off, because TV stations don’t do that anymore.
No. 17: Use an actual ”clicker.” Hey, kids, back in the day, remote controls were mechanical devices that clicked! The loud clicking sound is what turned on the TV and changed the channel. If you couldn’t reach the clicker, you could just jiggle your dad’s car keys.
If you think of anything else the Class of 2016 hasn’t done, won’t do or can’t remember, let me know.
The other day, I passed a bunch of kids going to prom. The girls, in their gowns, with their hair fixed just so, were beautiful. The boys, in their rented tuxedos, looked like dorks. The girls carried themselves like women. The boys looked like dorks.
It isn’t hard: Don’t slouch. Don’t horse around. Tuck in your shirt. Straighten your tie. Back up: Learn to tie a tie. Don’t wear a clip-on or that crappy bow tie with the elastic band that came with your rented tux. Tie it yourself. Don’t go for that end-of-the-day loose knot. You haven’t earned it. Straighten your tie.
I was a teenage boy once. I know it’s weird dressing up. It’s uncomfortable, and it makes you feel really self-conscious. I know a guy, his daughter bought a prom dress, went to the salon and was ready for prom when her date called to say he looked dumb in a tux and that he wasn’t going, and he didn’t.
Boys, don’t be that guy. Learn to wear a suit.
It’s important, because a guy in a suit looks like he knows what he’s doing. He looks like he’s in charge. He looks confident. Someday, you’ll want a job, a real job, and you’ll need to wear a suit and look good doing it, because, let’s face it, you’re not Mark Zuckerberg. You don’t have any billion-dollar ideas, and, even if you did, you wouldn’t have a clue about how to make them happen. You’re going to need a job, and to get a good job, you need to learn to wear a suit.
Khakis, a blue shirt and a Navy blazer don’t count as a suit.
Years ago, I read something, attributed to Cary Grant. He was a movie star, and looked like it. He was the George Clooney of his day, only smooth, and he never played Batman, although he sure as hell would have made a great Bruce Wayne. Anyway, Cary Grant supposedly said a guy needs only one suit, but it had better be a good one. That’s good advice.
Trust me: You want Mark Zuckerberg’s money, but you need Cary Grant’s style.
I was doing some spring cleaning this weekend — OK, so I’m running about 6 months late — when I found an old, fragile copy of The Bobbsey Twins at School, published in 1913. I think I got it after my grandmother died. On the contents page, it said:
It’s easy these days to take books for granted.
