Life, love and literature

I browsed my high school library extensively; I had a class called study hall which met in the library. The librarian didn’t care if we studied or browsed, so I spent time selecting something to read. I picked books up, put them in my hand, sampled a few pages and made my selection. I came across an author named Bess Streeter Aldrich one day. There were several books by her, but I chose one called SONG OF YEARS. She wrote stories of pioneer families settling the Midwest. This novel was the story of Wayne Lockwood, a handsome young single man who settled near Suzanne’s big lively family of plenty of girls; one of the girls had eyes that lit like candles when she looked up at him. Of course, he didn’t notice and promptly fell for the fairer sister. Through their daily lives, she loves him silently, never thinking her love would ever be returned. Things change because that’s life. Suzanne has become a teacher in a small one room school house, and she takes her students outside to wave to the train carrying troops of soldiers off to fight in the Civil War. As the train nears the school, it begins to slowly draw to a stop. Wayne gets off, rushes to Suzanne, embraces and kisses her. I have read many, many romances in my life, but that moment in that sweet little novel made a lasting impact on my life. When my older daughter needed something to read one summer, I took her to the library, expecting to find SONG OF YEARS – no such luck! I asked my ex college roommate, who was a librarian in Florida if she had ever heard of Aldrich. Shortly afterwards, I received a copy of the book in the mail. My friend had found a copy in a used bookstore in the Northeast! It is one of my treasures still. My daughter and her daughter love it the way I do! I have even chosen actors and actresses to portray Wayne and Suzanne. Someone had the good sense to reprint the Aldrich books – there are several and in paperback! If you like stories of our pioneers of life long ago without graphic descriptions that writers of today seem to think must be included, you might just become an Aldrich fan. The story has some complications in the romance as it moves along. Wayne is believed to have been killed in battle; Suzanne is about to be wed; in fact the wedding is going on when a returning soldier interrupts it and the reader is most happy!