Wednesday, February 26, 1964

57th Day - 309 days to follow

Cloudy

    After school I went to Mullin's then caught a bus from there to the Heart of Huntsville.  Got a haircut then went over to Bell Brothers Shoe Store and talked to Troy till 5:45 P.M.  Helen K. and Jean S. came in for a while and I caught a ride to town as they went.  Stopped in the Grand News Stand and got a Classic Illustrated funny book of Castle Dangerous for a book report.  Then went to the library and checked out Seven Days in May.  Met Ronnie H. there and we went to dance team practice at the Naval Reserve.

    Left at 7:30 P.M. and went to the Central "Y" for a Hi-Y meeting.  Only three members showed up.  Terry P., Donald B., and myself.  Donald brought me home after the meeting.

    Wrote Don a letter and started reading Seven Days in May.  It's 11:15 P.M. maintenant et je desire aller a cruche.  Pardon mon spelling de les mots, si vous plat.

    In college we had Cliff Notes and Monarch Notes to help us through the assignments we were too busy or too lazy to complete as they were assigned. In high school I used Classic Illustrated comic books for the same purpose. I grew up calling comic books by the term “funny books,” I guess because of their similarity in design to the comic strips in the funny papers in the daily newspaper. I am not sure if that was a regional slang term or more universal than I think, but the terms were interchangeable to me.

    I cannot say for sure the thought process behind the creators of Classic Illustrated books, but they were the Reader’s Digest version of the classics for most teens. They were easy to read and with the illustrations, easy to understand. I was not alone in the utilization of these short graphic versions of sometimes long and hard to read books given as reading assignments in classes and requiring a book report as evidence that the story has been consumed. In looking back at this, I find I didn’t recall either the book or the author until I looked it up again and found it was penned by Sir Walter Scott. I can only think the reason I picked this book was due to the small list of available titles on the shelf at the newsstand and the time restraints of the assignment.

    Comic books were cherished possessions in my childhood and many were read and swapped and swapped again until the covers hung by a single spike of a rusted staple. Action hero books and newspaper comic strip characters were the most popular subjects. My personal favorite comic book hero was “Blackhawk” who lead a group of aviators in search of adventure and fighting for the American cause. When I first started buy comic books they sold for 10 cents each and later went up to 12 cents.

    I, like many of my friends, wish I had saved all the ones I once owned, for today they are highly collectable and if I had the current value of all I once owned I could add a large sum of money to my retirement nest egg.