CLIFTON WEARS NEW HAT!
The
word “encyclopedia” is what we old timers called a
“jaw-breaker”. We were well
acquainted with the long row of books on the library shelves of the
school and
in some homes. We knew that the answer to most questions could be found
somewhere in that long row of books. Sometimes the answers were rather
brief
and didn’t answer your question completely but the important
aspects of the
question were well covered.
In later
years Ella and I considered the base of knowledge important enough to
purchase
a set along with the yearly supplements. We made frequent trips to the
book of
knowledge shelf when we needed an answer that wasn’t readily
available.
One topic
that was not explained in the encyclopedia was “internet”.
No such thing
existed in the days when the long line of books was the base of
knowledge. The
modern internet search engine finds 133,000,000 entries in response to
“encyclopedia”! Several good encyclopedias are available
for use on the
internet.
As more
families are now enjoying computers and the operation and use is being
taught
at a younger age the internet has replaced the printed encyclopedia.
The empty
book shelf is now available for new material – perhaps books
about the care and
operation of computers!
My first
acquaintance with encyclopedias happened the first year I attended
school. I
suppose the school must have purchased a new set because they had
thrown many
of the big books into the “burn barrel”. Since there was no
garbage service at
the school all flammable material that was discarded was placed in a
metal
barrel and when it was about full it was ignited and allowed to burn.
The ashes
were taken by the school janitor and strewn along the edge of the
school yard
boundary. The next rain moved it away, down the hill and a portion of
it into
the dirt tank that supplied water for the school and many households of
the
little town. A tank on the other side of the hill on which the town was
build
furnished water for others and some had cisterns that provided enough
water. No
well water was within digging depth in this little town.
The big red
books must have appealed to the students because they were pulling the
books
out of the barrel, sorting through them and taking the ones that they
wanted. Since
that seemed the thing to do I grabbed three of the heavy books and
carried them
away. There were many pictures in them and I knew I would like to look
at them.
Those three
big encyclopedias were the extent of our knowledge library. We did have
a large
dictionary that was pretty thorough in explaining the meaning,
pronunciation
and origin of words. It was also well illustrated with pictures of many
of the
items described. There were a few medical books used by my father in
his
medical schooling and many years as a country physician.
One of the
big books had a picture that we noticed and were curious enough to read
about
it. The article called it a box kite. We were familiar with regular
kites and
had built a few. Some worked well and some were failures, but we always
had fun
with them. This odd contraption was on the end of a string and a kid
was
holding the line and flying it like a regular kite. In the picture it
looked
like two boxes, one above the other floating peacefully at the end of
the
string he was holding. The device did not have a balancing tail like a
regular
kite. The accompanying article explained the kite and included
instructions for
building and flying one.
The boxes
were about 18 inches in diameter and about the same distance apart.
They were
constructed of a very light wooden stick framework and covered with
paper. The
control string was attached to a corner of the top box. For two expert
craftsmen like
The morning
we prepared for our first flight was a little windy, but between gusts
there
was a nice kite flying breeze.
Just at
that moment a strong gust of wind hit the kite and it suddenly began
some wild
maneuvering, jerking the string from my hands and diving straight for
I tried to
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