An Early Book Memory

It's a new meme started by K.C. Shaw! Early book memories!

Let's see... I remember in the 4th grade (1979) my school had this program they called USSR, which of course stood for Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading. The teacher set aside some time each day for the class to read. Usually it was about 20 minutes, but to a kid it seemed like a looooong time. We each chose a book either from the school library or from the classroom bookcase and read to ourselves. I remember this one book from the library that was called Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum and which was filled with short horror stories. Other kids had read it and were expounding upon its virtues. Eventually my turn came to check it out and I devoured those stories rather quickly. Several more times during that school year I checked that book out from the library and re-read those stories. Alas, the following year I attended a new school that was built closer to home, and it did not have that book in its library. Years and years and years (okay, more like decades) went by, but I never forgot that book and the stories in it. Then one day, while perusing a second hand book store, what should I find? Yes, THAT book. I was overjoyed. I bought it, brought it home and read it all over again, reliving my distant youth. For a short time, I was ten years old again, reading those stories for the first time.

I've Been Tagged

Catherine J. Gardner tagged me along with six other suckers...er...bloggers. So here goes.

Share seven facts about yourself in the post. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

1. I drive a tanker truck very much like this one for a living. Yes, it is in essence a big bomb on wheels. I've been driving truck for twelve years now, but don't exactly conform to the stereotype of a trucker (I took my stuffed bunny with me when I drove long haul).

2. I come from a "Yours, Mine and Ours" type family, only with a lot less children. Mom had two kids from her first marriage. Same with Dad. They got hitched and four years later, I came along. The funny part? The real life Doctor who delivered the "ours" baby in the real life "Yours, Mine and Ours" story (yes, that was a true story) also delivered me.

3. As noted above, I am the youngest of five children. What I didn't mention was that I am the only male child. Yes, I had four older sisters and was the baby brother that was the ideal test subject for such things as lipstick, nail polish and other cosmetic horrors. Therapy can do wonders. Thankfully, since I was so completely unexpected, all my sisters were quite a bit older than me and by the time I was five, they had left home, allowing me to grow up alone.

4. I will never have to worry about going bald, however, I began going gray when I was around nineteen. Twenty years later, that gray hair to black hair ratio is now about 1:5 and getting worse. By fifty, I should look like a Drow.

5. I love genre entertainment in any and every form: Books, movies, TV, games, etc. If it has monsters, ghosts, aliens, robots, space ships, dragons, wizards and all that kind of stuff, I just adore it. Doesn't matter what year it's from, what country it's from or how cheaply it was made, I love it all. Thus the reason why close friends and family have to pick their jaws up off the ground when I tell them how much I love Jane Austen.

6. I have a rather large collection of stuffed animals, mostly bears. People always assume they belong to my wife, but no, they are mine!

7. I really love animals. Except sharks. Of course that stems from a scary encounter I had with one back in my surfer days. If I was rich, I'd donate as much as a could to animal charities. I've owned numerous cats and dogs over the years, and while I have nothing against our feline friends, dogs just flat out rule.

Since this tagging thing has transpired while I was at work today, and since I live on the West coast and am the last to hear about anything, I am left with very few choices for further tagging. So I have decided tag you and you and you. Yes, you. And you two over there, stop doing that in public and consider yourselves tagged. Plus you and you. Go. Now.