Throw a kiss, Harry
Samuel’s first spring break. We didn’t go out of town, but we did take the boys to the local Bricks & Minifigs store. I’d never seen them more excited to be anywhere. It’s a pleasant store: clean; well-lighted; not overwhelmingly full of merchandise; inexpensive, as long as one can keep from going hog-wild.
The cashiers were a couple of sad-sacks. Not just bored: despondent.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The more time I spend with children, the more I marvel at the lifelikeness of Mary Chalmers’s Throw a Kiss, Harry.
Read it here. This is the bowdlerized version from the ’nineties. It’s the version familiar to our household.
The original version, from the ’fifties, is even truer to life: Harry’s mother casually threatens to spank him.
Whether they actually spank or not, parents’ll recognize how tempting (and gratifying) it is to threaten retribution.
Children are simultaneously so naughty and so adorable, so ornery and so affectionate. These are the truths that Throw a Kiss, Harry understands.
The cashiers were a couple of sad-sacks. Not just bored: despondent.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The more time I spend with children, the more I marvel at the lifelikeness of Mary Chalmers’s Throw a Kiss, Harry.
Read it here. This is the bowdlerized version from the ’nineties. It’s the version familiar to our household.
The original version, from the ’fifties, is even truer to life: Harry’s mother casually threatens to spank him.
Whether they actually spank or not, parents’ll recognize how tempting (and gratifying) it is to threaten retribution.
Children are simultaneously so naughty and so adorable, so ornery and so affectionate. These are the truths that Throw a Kiss, Harry understands.