"A spring of delight boiled up within him as irresistibly as the spring of the branch. He lifted his arms and held them straight from his shoulders like a water-turkey's wings. He began to whirl around in his tracks. He whirled faster and faster until his ecstasy was a whirlpool, and when he thought he would explode with it, he became dizzy and closed his eyes and dropped to the ground and lay flat in the broom-sage. The earth whirled under him and with him. He opened his eyes and the blue April sky and the cotton clouds whirled over him. Boy and earth and trees and sky spun together. The whirling stopped, his head cleared and he got to his feet. He was light-headed and giddy, but something in him was relieved, and the April day could be borne again, like any ordinary day."
Ahhh, how many times I have done this same thing, felt this same way. Even today, sometimes deep inside my soul, I want to lift my arms and whirl around and around and around like the little girl I once was.
I was told that this text was "rich" - it is rich, rich as the richest cheesecake I ever did taste!! My tongue tingles as I read aloud - I am savoring every word, every thought, every idea. For my students, it is a little hard to swallow... but we are working on it. They have not fallen in love with the book yet - they find it "boring" and "uninteresting"... but I know it's comin'... as sure as the dark clouds are followed by rain - it's a comin'!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Chapter One
I am in the middle of Chapter One. Our school is on an A-day/B-day schedule, so by the time I finish today, I will have read chapter one about seven times! That's a lot of time to digest...
One interesting thing about chapter one is the food mentioned. For dinner, they had poke-greens with white bacon, sand buggers (made with potato and onion and "cooter" found crawling the night before), sour orange biscuits and sweet potato pone.
I have been looking for a recipe for sour orange biscuits - I really want to try that. I asked my husband (who this book SO reminds me of) if he knew what a "pone" is or what a "sand bugger" is. I mentioned the potato, onion and cooter in the sand bugger - he said, "that be some kind of turtle"... my goodness, how does he know this! I looked it up and he was right - "cooter" refers to turtle. I imagine a sand bugger is something like a potato cake or salmon pattie/crab pattie. Not sure about the pone yet, my students tell me it is something like a pie without a crust.
I am looking forward to digesting a little more today...
One interesting thing about chapter one is the food mentioned. For dinner, they had poke-greens with white bacon, sand buggers (made with potato and onion and "cooter" found crawling the night before), sour orange biscuits and sweet potato pone.
I have been looking for a recipe for sour orange biscuits - I really want to try that. I asked my husband (who this book SO reminds me of) if he knew what a "pone" is or what a "sand bugger" is. I mentioned the potato, onion and cooter in the sand bugger - he said, "that be some kind of turtle"... my goodness, how does he know this! I looked it up and he was right - "cooter" refers to turtle. I imagine a sand bugger is something like a potato cake or salmon pattie/crab pattie. Not sure about the pone yet, my students tell me it is something like a pie without a crust.
I am looking forward to digesting a little more today...
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Journey Begins
Recently my students and I began a journey to Cross Creek. Our journey began with my desire to expose my students to classical literature - I could think of no better book than The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (not to mention the fact that there were plenty of copies available for my students to use). Before even mentioning such a lengthy novel to my students, I began background research. The only thing I knew about The Yearling is that it was a popular book to Florida natives (of which I am not) and had something to do with Cross Creek, FL... my favorite steakhouse is named after that place.
With the help of a friend and information from a First Coast Scholars symposium - I learned a LOT!
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was a Yankee who fell in love with the wild backwoods of Florida in the early 1900's. I like to imagine she was an author much like me, except she was very successful and productive and I am just a procrastinator. I learned that writing was a chore and did not come easy for her, nor does it come easy for me. She did, however, master it! The Yearling won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. This was later followed by Cross Creek which was sort of like an autobiography of her time living in Cross Creek. Again - I have not fully read either book as of this date!! I have read excerpts from Cross Creek, particularly Hyacinth Drift, in which she took a boat trip down the St. John's River. This was, in my opinion, an attempt of Rawlings to renew herself - to find herself again. I cannot tell you how many times I feel that need for renewal - to find myself again. I am on a journey - to read The Yearling, to read Cross Creek, and to visit the home of this incredible woman who braved the backwoods of Florida.
With the help of a friend and information from a First Coast Scholars symposium - I learned a LOT!
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was a Yankee who fell in love with the wild backwoods of Florida in the early 1900's. I like to imagine she was an author much like me, except she was very successful and productive and I am just a procrastinator. I learned that writing was a chore and did not come easy for her, nor does it come easy for me. She did, however, master it! The Yearling won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. This was later followed by Cross Creek which was sort of like an autobiography of her time living in Cross Creek. Again - I have not fully read either book as of this date!! I have read excerpts from Cross Creek, particularly Hyacinth Drift, in which she took a boat trip down the St. John's River. This was, in my opinion, an attempt of Rawlings to renew herself - to find herself again. I cannot tell you how many times I feel that need for renewal - to find myself again. I am on a journey - to read The Yearling, to read Cross Creek, and to visit the home of this incredible woman who braved the backwoods of Florida.
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