Blog 1645 – 03.24.2020

“A True Friend And Good Writer.”

This morning I finished the longest book yet in my David Reads Children’s Books project, Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White. I would say, “No relation” for clarification, but I have come to believe that is never very true for any of us. And after reading Charlotte’s Web, I feel a kinship to Mr. E. B. White on several levels. The book was first published in 1952. I turned two years old that year. The little girl I first began my David Read’s Children’s Books for, Amelia Curtis, turns one in a couple of weeks on April 3rd. My son, Jonathan, shares that same birthday. He will turn thirty. I hope both he and she will listen to these recordings in the years to come and hear not just my mispronunciations and mistakes but the love in my voice as I read to them and to all who will take the time to listen to these wonderful children’s stories.

I am no rich voiced, eloquent, and near flawless reader as was Basil Rathbone, who played Sherlock Holmes in the nineteen forties movies. I stumble and fumble through most every book, long or short, tongue getting tangled around my eye teeth, and often tears in my voice making it hard to read but I hope enough of the authors’s words shine through to be some reading encouragement to children. The greatest gift my mother ever gave me was passing on her love for reading to me as did my daddy too. Dad loved mostly westerns and detective mysteries and though mom loved romance books, perhaps the most, her reading interests were voracious and took her farther and wider into the world than her lovely legs ever did. Thank you, Mom and Dad, so much for this most precious gift.

Teaching children to not only read but to love reading is why for many years I taught Sunday School and even for quite a while thought I might like a career in Elementary Education. Alas, both those were not to be for me. I did however and still do love reading to all my children. I have shared things that I have read, seen, and heard that touched me, now in this daily blog for almost five years, and I hope to yet for many more.

What E.B. White wrote in tribute to Charlotte in the closing lines of Charlotte’s Web, I hope will be one day written and said of me even long after I have passed off this scene, what the title of this piece says, “A True Friend And Good Writer.” That is what I mean always to be. And thank you Brother E. B. For being both to so many of us, sharing your gift, Sweet Charlotte, Wilbur, and the gang.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White