Did you hear that? It was a howl sounding like the scream of a wild animal out of control, but it was no animal. I am that screamer. It is all because today is cloudy. Oh, gee, a cloudy day?  I suppose, like a Pollyanna, I should find the sunny side. There is no snow. There it is, the only bright spot in the whole day.

Yesterday I did some errands, oiled some furniture, washed and dried a load of laundry and swept the kitchen floor. All of them were mindless activities meant to help the day pass quickly. I wanted today because the weather man had predicted sunny. He was wrong and should be tarred, feathered and driven out-of-town on a rail.

I spend a bit of yesterday reading and was reminded of when I was a kid lying in bed reading a book, usually one of the classics. Back then there was no special literature for kids, no books with special themes or social commentary or age appropriate suggestions. Many of the books I read my mother had read when she was young. It didn’t matter they were about long ago. I loved reading them for their adventures and for their characters.

Some of those classics have become enshrined in my memory. When I was ten, I read Little Women and couldn’t put it down. I wanted to be Jo. She had a mind of her own and fought convention, and I thought how brave she was. My mother read us Treasure Island, and I was enthralled with buccaneers, pirates and buried treasure, and I envied Jim Hawkins. The duplicity of Long John Silver just about broke my heart. The Wind in the Willows is now and will forever be one my favorite books. Black Beauty made me cry as did Heidi when they took her away from the grandfather. Nancy Drew is not a classic but had been around for years when I first found her. She is the reason I still love a good mystery. Add Trixie Belden to that list.

Kids today have so many choices and so many wonderful books to read, but I am a bit sorry that the classics gather dust. I understand it, but I am still a bit saddened. Jim Hawkins, Jo March and Heidi are in my memories, but I wish they were still alive.