Today
This morning on Facebook someone posted a list of things that their mother used to say. Some of them are pretty funny and ring a bell with me as I remembered how my mother used a range of stock expressions.
In My Day
So what were the stock expressions my mother used? When table manners were under discussion Mamma's strongest term of condemnation was that we were behaving "like lorry drivers", I don't know what her experience was of lorry drivers; whatever it was, the expression conveyed a deep horror of vulgarity.
Another deeply irritating remark related to minor injuries, "Never mind, it'll be better by the time you're married." I wanted sympathy and time off school, if at all possible, and anyway, what if I never got married?
"She" was certainly the cat's mother, occasionally grandmother, not that we had a cat. And living in a barn obviously had no merits.
Many of the expressions on this list I first heard parroted by schoolmates. The most scary was the one about the wind changing while you were making a funny face. What if it were true? Maybe that explained my squint and face that only managed to rustle up "handsome" as a description.
The worst one was in response to our asking "why" to an instruction - "because I said so". This always made me grit my teeth and I swore that I wouldn't say that to my children. And, what's more, I didn't, which resulted in my giving long and detailed explanations that made their eyes glaze over. I expect they gave in just to shut me up.
Today
While in Bexhill recently I went to a charming little exhibition celebrating Ladybird books. There were original designs and rows of books. How thoughtful and elegant were the illustrations and no subject was too difficult or obscure.
Whatever has happened to Ladybirds?
In My Day
When the girls, especially Lizzie, were small, Ladybird books were a normal part of the reading landscape. They were compact, cheap and you could almost always find one that was relevant to the learning stage of the children. I can't remember all the books that we had, but a couple stick in my mind.
One was "Rapunzel", a charmingly illustrated version of the tale from which I understood for the first time that Rapunzel is actually the name of an edible salad vegetable - something that is lost in translation. "Lettuce, Lettuce, let down your hair" doesn't have the same ring.
The other one was the Ladybird book of the stars. This was used to arbitrate in a discussion that Lizzie had with a teacher who was a signed up flat-earther. The question they were asked was in which constellation you can find the Pole Star. Lizzie researched in a range of heavyweight tomes and came up with Ursa Minor. The teacher told her that it was in Ursa Major.
http://www.space.com/15567-north-star-polaris.html
How to get the point across while letting him know at what level we thought his astronomical skills were? Ladybird to the rescue! There was a picture of a darling baby teddy bear with the pole star shining on his tail! Lizzie took the book in to show him.
Ladybird books still exist and they offer some very good learning to read systems. But I was disappointed that the illustrations are all dumbed-down bright cartoons, are really only for children up to age 5 and regrettably some feature Peppa Pig,
Rapunzel is still in print, however, and I have bought one for Carmen to enjoy when she's old enough.
