August 18, 2024

Ah, a box that fully captures the Flemings' religious side. And before you read even further, I prepare you to be disappointed by both the box, in that regard, and the Flemings' religious side.

I do take great joy in finding these books in a Gallo Wine Box, with even more joy to see the puzzling "Cookie Jar" scrawled in marker on the side. We do have cool cookie jar in the shape of a cottage, taken from my parents' kitchen. I'm assuming I brought it home in the Gallo Wine box (a wine they would drink, not necessarily Pix or me) after their passing. It's not a big box, so it only holds 20 books, 7 of which are mysteries, and the 3 most "religious" books we own.

The highlight is "The Bible For Young Readers: The Old Testament," a 1967 book that I have had since my childhood.

Mine is the soft-back version of the above, $1.95 new with a .50c sticker on the cover. I will own up here that at best I am an agnostic, and as I have noted in other postings at this website, my mother was Catholic and my father was either agnostic or atheist. If I was a more religious man, it would be a result of the drama that fills the Old Testament. Jill Sobule once sang that the "Old Testament God could be so petty" in her lament about "why are all our heroes so imperfect?"¹ At least the Old Testament God provided some drama and tension, and the very stylized illustrations in this Children's bible fascinated the heck out of me. If you needed any evidence that the illustrations would be applicable to the 1960s in which the book was published, you merely need to realize that Charles Front (the first of two listed illustrators) is most famous for the lettering on the cover of The Beatles' Rubber Soul. Look it up, dude, it's really groovy. Meanwhile, the second artist, David Christian, had designed the cover to a more obscure Beatles' monograph: "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" (which, given that it was 1966, suggested a rather short view, or really long view, of The Beatles). Again, look it up, dude. It's a trip.

The pictures through "The Bible For Young Readers" are relatively simple, and for a kid who was watching Rocky and Bullwinkle or Underdog, these images felt familiar and safe, even when potentially frightening, as with Moses and the burning bush

Or, Moses upon his third day on Mt. Sinai:

In addition, thanks to the illustrations, I could chuckle at how nervous the frogs looked upon learning that they would be day three of the plagues:

However, I wasn't smart enough (or savvy enough) yet to realize the implications of just how much darker Cain is in the image of him slaying Abel. Yowzah! (or maybe Yahweh!) Enlightenment, for both a kid and a society, takes awhile:

So, despite the fact that I leaned agnostic, I found enough very real in the Old Testament especially that I never shied away from understanding the Bible as a piece of literature or a piece of historical documentation. While I never got around to taking a "Bible As History" or "Bible As Literature" course in college, I did eventually buy "The Bible As History," a paperback surprisingly thinner than one would expect, whether for either practical or theoretical belief.

Yet, it sits in storage alongside "The Bible for Young Readers," these additional forgettable seven mysteries, and other classics like "The Baseball Bathroom Book," "Daring Missions of World War II," "The Best American Sports Writing: 2005," and "Financial Accounting For Dummies" (the latter purchased when I applied for a few college presidency positions in 2010. Thank the Good Lord that never manifested). I may have been named after the guy who slew Goliath

but I ain't going up against no Board of Trustees with my puny little slingshot.

What's the third religious book, Dave, some of you are eager to ask. Nothing less than "God, Country, Notre Dame: The Autobiography of Theodore M. Hesburgh," who, if you aren't from this neck of the woods, or devotely Roman Catholic, or devotely a fan of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, means you may not know he was the President of the University of Notre Dame for 35 years. Pix received this book from Notre Dame as a gift, not when she was hired as a part-time librarian in 2011, but when she was let go as part of a down-sizing a few years later. What a parting gift, eh?

It sits, still in shrink-wrap, in this box. She thinks we should sell it on ebay, but I figure if all people who leave Notre Dame are given the book, it may not be that rare (and perhaps all equally still in shrinkwrap).²

¹Sobule, Jill. "Heroes." Pink Pearl. Beyond Music, 2000.

²Lest someone in this region thinks I'm playing partial here, please note that I have only found one other book still in shrinkwrap through all of these boxes: "The University of Michigan Songbook." The Flemings are equal opportunity "deniers" of the local collegiate passions. Also, note, I have no idea how (let alone, why) we ever got that Songbook.

Full series here.