What literature will do to you. I found it on the pinterest board Ludicrous Vintage Ads, which are a lot of fun when they aren't completely enraging.
Update! Here is some more information about it, from the Library of Congress. This image seems to be a variation of an illustration from a book called Social Purity, by one John W. Gibson, published in 1903.
Here is the original (?) image with the central text still intact, which reveals that the girl is reading the novel Sapho.
Can you name all the attendees at this wonderful Kidlit Tea Party? Click through to theGorgonist's etsy shop for the answer. The print is only $12 and, if I hadn't spent all my money on Sylvie's Wizard of Oz themed birthday presents just now, I'd snap it up. Looks like there is only one available.
This is a great photo, as fellow Nova Scotian Chelsea Nichols, the curator of The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things, points out. I bet there are a lot of photos out there of children not looking at the art in museums. I bet there are a lot of photos out there of people in general not looking at the art in museums. Wouldn't that make a great art show?
Some of my legions of readers may remember the wallpaper on the walls of my childhood bedroom. And by some of you I mean my mom, my brother, and my oldest friend from childhood, Sara. And by legions of readers, I mean those three, although Sara doesn't get online much, and maybe two or three others.
I've framed a scrap of that wallpaper and it's there on that shelf by Vivi's bed. Do you see Vivi's sheets? The pattern is very similar -- I found them for a song at a store in town that was going out of business. And that's the quilt from my childhood bedroom. You can see that I am reliving my own childhood through my daughter's bedroom decor, whether she likes it or not.
And now I've started dressing her in the pattern, poor thing.
You can get a good view of the dress from all angles in this impromptu performance. If you can't stand the song about how she is a pink-red rose, fast forward to the rear view, which happens around 34 seconds.
And thus endeth the "let's forcefully relive our own childhoods through our children" post of the day. (It's nice that so far, she still cooperates.)
Someone on facebook named Mary Carpenter posted this touching Mother's Day request to her children and I have seen it popping up all over the place. You should go read it. I will wait.
Mary's request is nice but I decided to write my own version. Here it is:
So I've decided to be proactive and tell my kids what I want for mother's day. Here it is:
Dear Children,
Mother’s Day is coming up, and I thought I should tell you what I want.
This way there’s no guilty panic or last minute purchasing of flowers
at the closest gas station. So, this is what I want, this year and every
year after; it’s pretty simple really.
I want your father to take you away for the entire day so I can spend it reading in bed.
Last weekend, we took the kids to the Crystal Palace in Moncton, New Brunswick, along with a couple of other families. That's Luke in the back, his friend Jack in the front, and Jack's mom Krista. Krista is brave. This is what that swing thing looks like from the ground.
I went on the merry-go-round with Sylvie and felt like throwing up.