Fun With Our Friends

Fun With Our Friends (1963) is a “Primer” from the New Cathedral Basic Reading Program. For reasons I can't really justify, I have collected a lot of children's school books, particularly of the “social studies” area. I guess this would be a book used in “reading” class. For one thing, I guess I loved social studies when I was in school, so it's a bit of crude nostalgia. Also, I'm interested in old books with illustrations (not photos, usually), so maybe I'm mostly attracted to the children's book illustration style—that's true. It goes without saying that many of these books represent only white people, and this one doesn't even show a city, or even small town—it's pretty much wealthy, suburban and rural white people. It's wholesome and happy to an extreme. For the most part, I can't find anything of interest in this one, unless it's used ironically. There are a few oddities, though. In one episode, the father is opening a cardboard box (it's his new grill) and it looks exactly like a cardboard box you'd see today—even the Amazon symbol is on it. Just kidding. Then there's a chapter called “A Ride on Clown”—fortunately, though—or maybe disappointing—Clown is the name of a pony. The best thing I saw in here is an episode where they made a big, toxic, yellow, birthday cake, but then forgot it at home, and so the clever grandmother cut a watermelon in half, stuck candles in it, and used that as a birthday cake. I've never seen that before, but I'm going to keep that in mind for future birthday parties.