Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Garage

Since my childhood home was built on the side of a mountain, the logical place for the garage was under the house.  The family car could be parked there in winter to protect it from the cold blasts of weather.  In the back of the garage was our root cellar, and storage for canned goods.  But there was also room for other things–unused furniture, spare parts for various equipment, and a secret stash of magazines–National Geographic.  Shhhh

We would steal away and look at the pictures of exotic birds and wildlife and of course the people from various countries, including the almost naked folk from Africa or some faraway land. We were sure these were forbidden magazines, because of those photographs. We would read the stories of how these people lived, examine the maps and then memorize the exotic names of the countries.  Only later did I find out that Mom had already read them, and thought them just too nice to throw away, and was planning to donate them to the school.

7 comments:

  1. I have always loved thumbing through National Geographic magazines. It started back in high school when I helped in the school library. They transported me to some of the most exotic places and I loved it!

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  2. My grandmother always had National Geographic around. She was a school teacher. I think this is the one way that she was able to travel the world without actually leaving the ranch. Thanks for sharing. Have a great week.

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  3. There's something truly nice about old publications. My MIL gave our DD a copy of Good Housekeeping - so charming! I think it was dated from the 50s. The National Geographic were always amazing with their vivid colorful photographs of far away exotic places where only in our minds we would ever visit.

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  4. I still enjoy the National Geographic magazines.

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  5. LOL-I can just picture you sneaking around to read those old National Geographics. We have a picture of my son (about 2 years old) licking a picture of one of the women in an article. xo Diana

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  6. We had those magazines as well and would hide them in the closet because we thought they were "bad". Then we saw them in school in the library of all places! Go figure. Guess I wasn't alone in my thinking?

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  7. You thought you had a great prize there and you did just not like the prize you thought you had. sandie

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