Reading: A luxury and A Pleasure

Our blog theme from ESN this week is reading.  I wonder if we readers realize what a luxury it is to have been educated to read.  So many world wide cannot read and don't have access to public libraries.  I am on a first name basis with the staff of our local library because I tell myself that not only am I saving money by not buying new books, I'm helping the environment by saving trees (what a saint I must be).

I love to read and my tastes vary widely.  Since I began my online business, I've been too busy to read as much as I used to read and hope to have more time for reading and spend less time watching TV in the near future.

My stores only have two listings for books (both cookbooks), but when I picked up Belton's Favorite Recipes, I was transported back in time.  The book was published in 1950, compiled by "W. S. C. S. of Belton, South Carolina."  When I began to thumb through the book, I was delighted to find "table prayers," household hints (most surprisingly still valid!), beauty hints (one promising not to harm your "permanent wave" - it's been years since I heard that term!),  wonderful anecdotes, ads for antiquated products (not a single ad for air conditioning) such as an ice and coal company and recipes, most of which today the medical community tells us is guaranteed to clog the arteries and induce diabetic comas within days!

I'm offering to sell this book, hoping that someone in the area of Belton, SC, will buy it.  The many ads are for business which funded publication and many I'm sure are no longer operating.  But wouldn't it be great to find such a book from the area where you grew up?  Although I didn't grow up in Belton, so much of the cookbook reminded me of my home town back in the 1950's.  As many of my blogs prove, I'm growing more nostalgic as my age progresses (which is none of your business, thank you very much!), and I so enjoyed stepping back into the time of my childhood.  All because I can read!

DISCLAIMER:  Written by, edited by an unsound mind.  If the reader has a distaste for sarcasm and self-depreciating humor, well, move along.  The author firmly believes in laughing at oneself whenever possible.

http://4myself.ecrater.com/p/12782769/beltons-favorite-recipes-south-carolina