Signs

The Two Books in the Trash: Part 2

| Flower Roberts

This post is a follow-up to an earlier post. THE LINK IS BELOW.

I am sorry for the delay caused by throwing the books away.
I had to order them on the internet because they were printed over sixty years ago.

Time Circles Take Their Time

Copies had to be ordered.

In this post I will discuss again my original reaction. A later post will be about my thoughts now after several years of wondering what the possible meaning of this sign could be? Was it from my mom or my dad? How did these two books get into that room? Landing in a wicker trashcan made them visible from the outside or they may never have been noticed. What a coincidence!

The answers are always in the details. Here I will describe each book and my initial reaction to it.

Front and back of the Kenneth J. Foreman
book about marriage vows.

I do wish I had the book jacket of the original book from the Enwood house, if there was one. This one is so much more interesting. This is from the third printing in 1953. The first printing was in 1950.

My initial reaction to this book was not pleasant. This book was a wedding gift from some friends of my maternal grandparents to my parents. The view of marriage in the 1950’s was very different from my views in 2023. I was not happy to have to revisit these old views of matrimony. I felt like I was being chastised and corrected from the grave. I was not sure if I wanted to be married at all at that point. I certainly was not about to backtrack to an antiquated version of marriage. This supposed sign actually made me furious.

Vietnam Era book by Thomas A. Dooley M.D.

The second book was also a propaganda powder keg. I was too young to fully understand Vietnam as the war unfolded and damaged the lives of thousands of people. I did understand tragedy and death. The books by and about Thomas A. Dooley tried to add a positive spin to the war story.

The Dooley story was carefully crafted to show how good Americans were and how evil the enemy was. The stories were fabricated or atleast slanted. Later information exposed that Dooley was actually a spy not just a selfless humanitarian. He got enemy information by locating his clinics in strategic locations. His crew did treat the ailments of locals and provide much needed nutrition packages. Every story has two sides. This one is tricky.

So now you know the names of the Two Books in the Trash.

I will follow this with my take on the meanings now. I have decided to treat each separately even though they ended up in the same trashcan. Stay tuned.

Be patient.

Remember, Time Circles Take Their Time.

FLOW

The Comic Book Sign from My Daddy

| Flower Roberts

This happened in 2024. I was reminded of it today while purging an Enwood box in the Wildwood library. I am years behind due to circumstances beyond my control.
I am irritated by mess and chaos. Since the library is full of my mess and chaos, I figured no one else would deal with it. I purged a big plastic box of remnants from the Enwood. This had in it the comic book that was part of the sign from Daddy.

It was 2024. I was working alone in Daddy’s woodworking shop beside the house on Enwood. It was still dirty and messy. This is not how my Daddy usually kept things, but his arthritis, age and eventually cancer had limited his energy. Cleaning up sawdust and putting away tools moved down and eventually off the “TO DO” list. The shop was an overwhelming place for me. I started with cleaning because it could be mindless work. Organizing required thought. Cleaning was automatic. I talked to Daddy as I worked. I spent a lot of my time in there scolding him for not giving me more “Man Lessons.”

I did not know how to use many of the tools. I did not even know the names of some, much less the value. I felt unprepared for the tasks ahead. I was mad and cried a lot. I do not remember if I was having a pity hissy fit when this happened, because my train of thought was interrupted by a crashing sound on the other side of the shop.

I turned around to see that the top end of one of Daddy’s fishing rods from the top shelf had swooped down and slammed its end onto a comic book that happened to be lying out on the workbench.

I am new to this sign business. The obvious thought was that Daddy was telling me not to throw away the comic book. I looked through it for money. I looked up the comic book on-line. Not worth much. Was the fishing rod of value? No. Maybe he just wanted me to quit whining?

Today, I pulled that comic book out again and wondered what significance it may have that I have not discovered yet?

I took took photos of the front and the back for the blog. That’s when I noticed the advertisement for the Red Rider BB gun on the back.

Oh, dear! This looks just like the BB gun we gave away when my sis and I sold the other guns to a gun store. I hope that thing wasn’t valuable! Maybe if I had had a few more “Man Lessons” I would have known better. Oops, I missed it again. My bad Dad!

FLOW