Ramona the Pest

When I was a kid I used to LOVE the Ramona the Pest books. Love them. I read all those Beverly Cleary books.

They were the thing to read for the elementary aged kid. Well, I picked up Ramona the pest on CD so that we could listen to it in the car. My kids really love to listen to stories in the car, and I’ve found that it keeps the fighting and arguing at a minimum on a long car ride. Even if a child groans when I start up the story or says they would rather not listen, once it starts they pay attention. As we started up Ramona today, I was laughing out loud. Oh, that book takes me back. Susan and her boing boing curls, Howie and his sister Willa Jean in the stroller, Beezus the big sister, the kindergarten teacher Miss Binny. The red boots that she gets stuck in the mud and Henry Huggins has to rescue.

I also realized how much different my school days were from those of my kids. I could relate to the “resting time” in Ramona the Pest because when I went to Kindergarten, we actually did lay down on little mats and “rest”. Kindergartens seem to have so much to do now. Testing, reading readiness, field trips, programs. It seems they don’t have time to rest. And the teacher says “we don’t want you to be tired when your parents pick you up.” Um, yes we do. Wear them out at school! I would LOVE it if my kindergartener came home to take a rest. Most of the time they don’t, but they certainly won’t rest at school.

Another thing my kids have probably never heard of… galoshes. Or the boots that you wear OVER your shoes. Who wears boots over their shoes? And rain slickers. In the book it said that all the boys looked the same in yellow slickers and brown boots. Now if it’s raining, the kids just pull up the hoods on their hoodies and call it good. And when her teacher comes out to help her when she is stuck in the mud, she is wearing a plastic rain bonnet or something like that. Here’s one I KNOW my kids would laugh at. Remember those little plastic cases like a tiny suitcase for Barbie that held a tiny plastic bonnet, all folded up? My grandma used to keep one in her purse, and I think my mom did, too. I don’t know how that thing would EVER fit back into that tiny box once it was unfolded, but I think they were reuseable. Remember those?

Oh the things we can learn (or remember) from Ramona the Pest. Oh, and “I’m the baddest witch in the world!!!!”