I took some books

out of the cupboard last weekend, picture books. My great nieces are still too small for them but my brother wanted to look at them.
They were books we had when we were small. There are not many of them. Although we were exposed to a good many books we did not actually own many. My father used to borrow them from the school in which he worked and read them to us.
We did have a few however and my mother, who often gave away things she felt we had "finished" with did keep some of the books. I think she used them when she was teaching and kept them until she retired. By then she had grandchildren and probably thought they would be useful for them as well. For that reason we still have some books from our childhood.
They are mostly "Little Golden Books". They must have been relatively cheap. There is a story about a tug boat which my brother remembered loving. There is the "Rainy Day" book which has all the tiny fold out pieces still intact. Underneath those are the raincoat and hat and boots etc. There is Old MacDonald's Farm and the Little Red Hen. We knew the stories so well we could recite them.
There are other books as well. We still have The story about Ping by Marjorie Flack and I have since bought copies of that for the Whirlwind and my godchildren. There is a story about Epaminondas which would now be looked on as extremely politically incorrect. There are two tiny, tiny books - each about two inches square - that we were given by my paternal grandfather. He found them in a local delicatessan one day and gave them to us for good behaviour.
And there is a copy of "When we were very young". It is old and battered. My brother opened that and started to read and then to recite. My father joined in. He can remember those although it has been thirty years since he used AA Milne in a school.
I had been to our local indie long before the family arrived. My father wanted to be sure his great-grandchildren also had access to the works of AA Milne. They were wrapped and ready to go in my brother's bag. There are copies of "When we were very young" for this coming Christmas. There are copies of "Now we are six" and there are copies of "The House at Pooh Corner" for future occasions. My father wanted to be sure that they would get there.
My brother and I know there are other books we want our father's great-grandchildren to read too.
We know because my nephew picked up one of the books and held it up for his sister to see saying, "Remember this?!"
"Yes!"