Old Mother West Wind

I grew up on Old Mother West Wind books. Only in the past year or so have I discovered that noone in my age group knows about Old Mother West Wind. Old Mother West Wind books were written by Thorton Burgess with the first book coming out in 1910.

This is also the year my late grandmother was born. When I used to visit her, part of the visit was a bedtime story from one of her many Old Mother West Wind books. I loved these stories...

Almost every story began with Old Mother West Wind coming down from the purples mountains with her Merry Little Breezes. She would let the Merry Little Breezes play in the great meadow while she worked filling the sails for the men working in the boats. The stories surround the animals in the great green meadow... characters like Danny Meadow Mouse, Reddy Fox, Great Grandfather Toad, Johnny Woodchuck and Peter Rabbit (not Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit) and so many more.

When my grandmother left her home to enter into assisted living, I had hoped to have her books but she had already given the books away. Last year, I mentioned the stories to Cory and found out that he had never heard of them. I ordered a new edition from Amazon but it wasn't the same. I liked the black and white drawings from the old books, the smaller format... so I went to ebay...

I found three different books. A 1912 edition of Mother West Wind's Animal Friends, 1911 Mother West Wind's Children and 1915 Mother West Wind "Why" Stories. I bid my little heart out and voila, I had three books. I think when they arrived, I briefly looked them over and put them away, just happy to have a piece of my past back.

Last night, I finished another vampire book and decided I needed something different. I grabbed my Mother West Wind's Animal Friends and was surprized to find the inscription on the inside cover...

It said... "When I started teaching in 1918, this book was in my room library (2nd grade) & was the newest book they had in childrens books and they loved it." I have to admit it is an amazing feeling to hold a book that was read to children who are now, most likely, in their late 90's. I have to say, I'm a little humbled by my book.