Rainbow Dictionary
I am a sucker for vintage books, especially children’s, and this one came home with me from a thrift outing recently. The author, Wendell W. Wright, was the Dean of the School of Education at Indiana University, and wrote this book in “MCMXLVII.” As I am not fluent in Roman numeral dates this required an internet search: 1948. A New York friend was visiting when I found the book and was appalled I did not place old books in the freezer. Seriously? It had never crossed my mind, but, after a quick wipe down, this book chilled overnight to appease her. Apparently, according to an article I found
book lice are tiny and generally a dark white or brownish color. They are rather fond of book glue, moisture and mold, which is why you often find them living their best life within the pages of an old book. Silverfish are bigger and easier to spot, and, worse still, bedbugs sometimes find their way into the spines of hardcover books. The problem isn't just that these bugs can chew and damage your books; it's that once they are in your home, they can make their way into other areas such as your furnishings and cause further damage. Freezing books can kill off any living insects and their eggs. (https://www.newsweek.com/woman-explains-immediately-puts-thrifted-books-freezer)
The same article quotes a scientist who is not so sure freezing will kill off unwanted bugs: "In the lab, we tend to preserve microbes at freezing temperatures and, if they are dry, they tend to survive for months, if not years." I hate to point out that “scientists have resurrected viruses dormant for tens of millions of years in Siberian permafrost” so I am not highly optimistic that 1948 critters would be done in by a brief freezer sojourn. (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The book itself is a treasury of vintage images and thoughts. The illustrations, done by Joseph Low, combine “imagination, freshness, vivacity, joyousness…and an effort has been made to draw upon the gay and happy experiences of children.” When I came across the large illustration for “Playground” I laughed out loud. My parental brain started yelling warnings, and I wondered how the heck those of us old enough to recall all these playground games survived childhood.
Even in the 1970s these worrisome playground toys were still in use. Teeter-totter anyone?! I absolutely loved playing on teeter-totters, and getting stuck up high was the best part – 6 feet off the ground, clinging to the handle and jumping about to get your weight to shift the leverage. And that metal jungle gym: yup, we had those too – creating challenges to playmates to scale past to stand on the top…oh maybe 8 feet in the air. Not a worry about the metal causing harm when falling, much less being rather hard on body parts. While my childhood playgrounds did not include a “may pole” (this one allowing the children to cling to a handle and swing in the air - dear lord), ours had a teether ball pole. I was ruthless at tether ball, smashing the ball to smack my opponent in the face was hands down the best part. I wasn’t much for the open sandbox, though my husband built one for our young boys back in the early 1990s in our yard. We did have a cover on it to keep the sand clean, and also keep neighboring cats – and the toxoplasmosis they carry – away.
Oddly, the artwork is lacking parents. There is one woman pushing a baby stroller and a woman riding by on a horse (even in 1948 that seems odd), glancing over her shoulder at all the activity. There are 37 children cavorting about – including 3 in the wading pool. Nary a lifeguard or parent in sight. The other thing I realized is how homogeneous the children are. Do you have Native American ancestry? Asian? Black? Possibly you are handicapped and need accommodations to enjoy playgrounds? No luck here – these children are all Caucasian. While I cannot speak for the diversity of the U.S. population in 1948, I am fairly confident there were Native American children, Black children, Asian children, not one of which are depicted in this scene. According to the 2022 census, 60% of the current population of our country is Caucasian. As such, 14 of these children should reflect a different heritage. And what about the physically disabled children? Children represent 6% of the 42.5 million Americans with disabilities, over 250,000 children. That would be the same as half the population of the city of Atlanta being disabled.
Our country is quite literally a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities – yet there seems to be a political desire to “return” to the glory days depicted in this playground. I for one do not believe that is either possible or beneficial. The joy of growing older is opening your eyes to knowledge, to learning viewpoints beyond your own. If everyone in your life is identical to you, the experiences of your life narrow, not expand. As I stress about our current political dynamic, with this idea of “returning” our country to a mythic past, I find comfort in the deep freeze my book went through. Yes, the idea is to “kill off” all those bugs and restore the book to its former clean glory. But the reality is those darn bugs – and most everything else – will survive a deep freeze, and grow back. My childhood memories are my own, reflecting the lily-white world I lived in. But I recognize the beauty of diversity and appreciate all the contributions other cultures, ideas and ethnicities offer us. When the deep freeze is over, our little bugs will repopulate and offer us some solace.