Are
you ready for another Tuesday Timeline? I know I've said it before, but I absolutely love doing
these. For one, there's a brand new
subject every single week I do these.
It could very well be considered like a Trivial Pursuit game, where each
question could be from a variety of subjects.
I'll
admit that this week's subject deals with the topic of literature, and that the
subject of this blog is doing something that not a lot of people can brag
about! More on that later.
So,
today's April 12. Let's see what
happened throughout history on this date.
1204 - The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the
walls of Constantinople and enter the city
1606 - The Union Flag is adopted by Scottish and British
ships
1831 - The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester,
England collapses from the weight of several soldiers marching across it!
1861 - The American Civil War begins
1864 - Several African-American soldiers are executed by
Confederate forces following their surrender at Fort Pillow, Tennessee
1912 - Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red
Cross, dies at the age of 90
1917 - Canadian forces successfully take Vimy Ridge from
Germany during World War I
1927 - Chiang Kai-Shek orders the Communist Party of
China members executed in Shanghai, China
1932 - Singer/ukelele player Tiny Tim (d. 1996) is born
in Manhattan, New York
1934 - The U.S. Auto Life strike begins
1936 - Actor/singer Charles Napier (d. 2011) is born in
Mt. Union, Kentucky
1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at age 63
while still in office
1947 - Author Tom Clancy (d. 2013) is born in Baltimore,
Maryland
1955 - Dr. Jonas Salk announces the news that a
vaccination for polio has been created
1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel
into outer space
1980 - Terry Fox kicks off his "Marathon of
Hope" for cancer research
1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle takes place -
in this case, it was Space Shuttle Columbia
1989 - Social activist and founder of the Youth
International Party Abbie Hoffman dies at the age of 52
1992 - Euro Disney opens to the public in Paris, France
1994 - The first commercial mass Usenet spam message is
sent by Canter & Siegel
1999 - President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of
court for giving "intentionally false statements" in his sexual
harassment civil lawsuit
2010 - A landslide causes a train derailment in Merano,
Italy, killing nine
2014 - Valparaiso, Chile is devastated by a fire which
kills sixteen people and destroys two thousand homes
And
for celebrity birthdays, we have quite a few turning one year older. Happy birthday to Wendy Savage, Dennis Banks, Herbie Hancock, Bill Bryden, Ed O'Neill, Alex Briley, Dan Lauria, David Letterman, Lois Reeves, Scott Turow, David Cassidy, Tom Noonan, Reuben Gant, Pat Travers, Andy Garcia, Vince Gill, J. Alexander, Will Sergeant, Magda Szubanski, Amy Ray, Tom O'Brien, Mellow Man Ace, Alicia Coppola, Toby Gad, Nicholas Brendon, Shannen Doherty, J. Scott Campbell, Claudia Jordan, Marley Shelton, Claire Danes, Jennifer Morrison, Paul Nicholls, Brian McFadden, James Alexandrou, Brooklyn Decker, Brendon Urie, Jessie James Decker, April Rose Pengilly, T. Mills, and Saoirse Ronan.
Oh
my goodness, that is a lot of people celebrating a birthday today. I hope I didn't forget anyone!
Oop...you
know what? I actually did. But that's all right. Because her birthday happens to be the same
date that I've chosen for today's Tuesday Timeline.
And
that date is...April 12, 1916!
Wait? April 12, 1916? That would make her one hundred years old today! I'm telling you - it's extremely rare for
someone to make it to birthday number one hundred. The only two celebrities that I can think of that made it to 100
are George Burns and Bob Hope - and both of those men passed away not long
after.
So,
needless to say, this is a very special Tuesday Timeline.
And,
to be honest with you, this person wrote a book that has a very special place
in my heart.
It
goes all the way back to second grade.
Unlike the previous year where I had a teacher who more or less tried to
destroy me, this teacher was a lot more fun.
Her name was Miss Johnson, and I think that she recognized the abilities
in me that no other teacher really wanted to touch. While I was still segregated from some of the other kids in the class
in some ways, it was only because I was placed in the enriched reading program
along with seven other kids. So, it
wasn't like I was being frozen out of the class completely.
Anyway,
back to the story...I remember in second grade, while the majority of the class
read from primers that were suitable for second grade reading, the eight of us
were given an independent study assignment for class where we read a
full-length novel and we did a bunch of activities based on that book.
The
book that was chosen for us was the book "The Mouse
and the Motorcycle". And as you may well know, the author of the
book is Beverly Cleary - who turns 100 years old today!
There
was just something so special about that book.
I absolutely love it to this day - and it seems hard to believe, but it
was over fifty years ago that the book first hit store shelves. Who knew that a little mouse named Ralph and
his toy motorcycle would have such an impact on me?
I
guess part of the reason why I could relate with this book was because I could
relate to the main character so much.
No, I am not a rodent covered with fur that can ride a motorcycle - but
I was a kid who had trouble fitting in because he felt as though he were
secretly judged by everyone else. It
was bad enough that Ralph was warned by his mother not to trust a human, but
when Ralph did befriend a little boy named Keith, Keith had to keep his
friendship with Ralph a secret, for he didn't want his own parents to know that
he was socializing with a mouse. In a
way, the story is a frustrating one, for you have a forbidden friendship
between boy and rodent, and how both of them want to stay friends forever even
though the world is against them.
I
have to wonder if maybe "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" was a clever
way to display the time period of the day.
After all, this book was written right around the time of the Civil
Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement.
It was definitely a period of social change, and I think that had I
though of it, it would have made an interesting project.
Then
again, in second grade, I was seven.
That project was a little TOO ambitious even for me. But I do remember doing some writing
assignments on the book, and even had the opportunity to design what Ralph's
house would look like using nothing but stickers. That was such a fun project!
I wish I still had it.
The
point is that "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" was really the first
novel I remember wanting to read and re-read over and over again, and I think
that Beverly Cleary's writing was a huge part of it. She didn't try to dumb down the novel for a specific
audience...rather she told a story in such a way that every single person could
understand what she was trying to illustrate.
And,
she wrote so much more than that one book.
In her century on this planet, it is estimated that Beverly Cleary has
written no less than 44 novels - almost all of them being huge successes with
children.
Perhaps
you might have read a few of the books starring the precocious Ramona Quimby -
a little girl that very well could have been an unofficial mascot for Cleary's
excellent body of work. And, I
certainly do remember reading all about Ramona, her sister Beezus, and her life
and times of growing up in your typical nuclear family in an average neighbourhood
with an overactive imagination that would make any eight-year-old proud. Also featured in these books is another
Cleary character - Henry Huggins - who happens to be the star of Cleary's first
novel, published all the way back in 1950!
Or
if you were a little bit older, you might have been enthralled by the novel
"Fifteen", a story about falling in love for the very first time and
the trials and tribulations of what it might be like to go out on dates with a
steady boyfriend. It's amazing how that
book was written six decades ago and yet still be relevant to teenagers today.
Really,
any of the Beverly Cleary library is worth a look. Of course, I'm partial to "The Mouse and the
Motorcyle", but any of the Beverly Cleary books are definitely worth
checking out.
In
fact, I issue you a challenge. In
celebration of Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday, I want you to go to the library
or download a copy of any of her books on your Kindle or iPad, and sit down and
read it. I think that would be a
fantastic way to celebrate the life of one of the world's most beloved
children's authors.
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