February 27, 2004
Ghosts of Third Grade
The Dick and Jane books
are being reprinted especially for nostaligic adults (thanks, Beth!). I don't remember Dick and Jane. The article says they went out of print in 1970, so I must've been too young. However, reading the article reminded me of another "learn to read" textbook from the third grade. It was about a caucasian family that lived on an indian reservation. It centered around a boy and his tagalong little sister. The boy's best friend was a Native American boy. Here's the freaky part - the final chapter had the trio of kids all grown up! Does anyone else remember this book?
Posted by mhinrichs at February 27, 2004 01:58 PM
I was in first grade in the mid-1960s, and we didn't use Dick and Jane books. We had Jack and Janet, with their little sister Penny, and Tip the dog and Mitten the cat.
i seem to recall using the dick and jane books when i was learning to read in the early 70s. isn't there a jane fonda film with the same title? i seem to recall seeing that when it came out.
SomethingAwful.com had a Dick & Jane theme in their Photoshop Phriday contest:
http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=1325
Those of us who grew up in the Sixties had to use these books in first grade.
I went to grade school in the late sixties, and these are the books I learned to read from, and to tell you the truth, coming from a "typical" dysfuntional family of 6 with the usual problems, I absolutely LOVED every page, every pretty watercolored picture..the mornings were always bright, happy, and sparkling clear, with a full breakfast cooked by Mom in the kitchen nook, your best friend calling out at the back door, and then out to play at a constuction site, a stream, a park with all the best swings and slides, trips to Grandpa's farm every summer, a splashy bath, pajamas before slipping into cool sheets and warm blankets to rest up for another sunny tomorrow... even then, I knew the whole thing was unrealistic in the extreme, but it made me feel so warm and secure to slip into that whole fantasy world of their little town in Middle America while the present days seemed so ugly and scary, with Nixon, Vietnam and Walter Cronkite on CBS with death tolls everynight, and hippies that could hide at night and kill Helter Skelter...and in some classrooms, the discontinued older copies I found were even better, the mom's dressed like 1940's starlets with hats, gloves, suits and pretty heels for "town" shopping, the cars were the cool huge old Buicks in bright candy colors, the living room had a cabinet radio and a fireplace, big comfy chairs and reading lights...I read them for as long as I could, and when I eventually graduated to more "young adult" fare, I still missed Dick, Jane, and Flip the dog...oh well, can't go back to what never was...and I still love to read.
I remember Dick & Jane... and Sally and Puff and Spot. I was a good reader and I HATED these books because I would whip through their simple-minded little paragraphs in minutes, then get in trouble because I would be caught daydreaming while the rest of the class was still reading slowly "Run. Run, Spot, run! See Dick? Run, Dick!"
AHHHH! We also had a similar set of stupid books called Alice and Jerry. They also had a stupid little dog and stupid little cat. "Dick! See Sally? Sally is stupid. Stupid Sally!"
Hi,
where can i contact you?
i have a question.
i need help with my website :(
