Book adventures – a quick one before boarding the flight home.

I am waiting for my flight to Michigan Land of Perpetual Snow and Ice. Mother and Father are glad to see their #1 Son (and #1 Spouse-in-law). Tomorrow we go to the family wedding. I am curious to see which will be more boisterous: the mariachi band or the voices of the entire Spo-clan high on life and missing their Ritalin.  Oh the pain.  

As is often the case when I am ‘home’ I want to look about the house for things I want to filch. I have enough dust-collectors already and I certainly don’t need more books*. My rationale is when the die I have to haul this stuff home anyway so I might as well start now in piecemeal. 

I suspect me next raid will consist of a series of five books that originated in my maternal grandfather’s library.  They are about the Great Lakes; I recall each book addressed one lake each. I don’t remember if I ever opened them. I now want to know their contents. As a boy I thought them lofty and ominous. It was like they were rare first editions on par of the Gutenberg Bible. Their covers suggest they were written in the 40s or 50s. 

My mind swoons what may be in them. They could indeed be rare tomes first editions (and worth something). However I am prepared for disappointment. They may be quaint history books now strangely antiquated. I wonder if they will be camp.  Someone and I came up with the awful possibility they are travel guides as to where to stay and what to see ala 1950s. 

I don’t know why Mother saved them. Perhaps they are along the line of things save when our parents die – not because we want them but we feel bad to simply throw them out. 

When we land I promise to write an addendum as to what they really are. I suppose there is a possibility Mother doesn’t know where they are or she got around to giving them to the church rummage sale. That would be a grave disappointment. It would be like missing the last train out by only few minutes. 

SATURDAY UPDATE – 

 

Happily the books are NOT 1950s travel books but omnibuses of history, geography, and legends. Some of them look unread; Lake Michigan appears to have been often browsed given its tattered dust jacket. They will make fine reading. Curiously there is no Lake Ontario book but Lake Pontchartrain – what the hell?  I am curious to go on Ebay or Amazon to see if Lake Erie is available.  
When I announced I was thinking of taking some books home with me, Mother replied “yes” even before I finished the sentence, not pausing to even ask ‘which books’.  🙂 

 

 

*Tsunduku