Life, love and literature

I was born in a little Texas town of about 3,000 people. My dad worked on a ranch. My mother was a stay at home mom who loved to sing old ballads-some which had come over from England-and read to us. The main books on their shelves were Zane Grey, which I read avidly. When I was a sophomore in high school, I fell in love. Not in the traditional sense of a young girl falling in love with the quarterback, but I fell in love with William Shakespeare. We read Julius Caesar and I was hooked on literature for life. We had study hall during the day in our high school library. Instead of studying, I browsed the library constantly. I discovered a book called Gone With the Wind, which I had never heard of. I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in three days and told my mother that I had just read the best book. She laughed and then told me she had taken me to see the movie when I was just a toddler. It is still my favorite book to this day. The movie did a good job retelling the story, although it wasn’t totally accurate. As I have become older I can no longer watch the movie nor read the book because the ending never changes. Although, Margaret Mitchell told people who inquired that of course Scarlett gets Rhett back. When I began making plans for what I wanted to do after high school, I thought about becoming an English teacher and I never veered from that path. I taught high school English for 38 years. I loved having a captive audience that I could share my first love with. I hope that some of you can relate to and share my ramblings on life, love, and literature.