Since the move, I’ve been adding items to a grab bag of goodies for my sister. Some of the items she knew she was getting and others we’ve just thrown into the bag thinking that the Niece could use parts and pieces for craft projects. Yesterday, my sister and her family joined us for dinner and just before they left I explained what some of the things in the bag were. My sister said thanks and went home.
The phone rang while we were doing dishes. It was my sister. She skipped the hello part of the conversation and just yelled “The Five Little Peppers”. The Five Little Peppers was a book our mother read to us when we were little. It seems strange for all the books I’m sure our mother read to us, we hold that one up as a “remember when she used to read that to us” moment.
I have had an old beat-up copy of the book for years. We found a paperback copy in a box of books from the MIL. I slipped the paperback into my sister’s bag. I knew she’d be excited.
The writing is old fashioned and stilted so it really is the memory of the act of cozying up and reading that makes that book such a touchstone for us.