Hard Times

There was a time, after my father had left, and my brother was off to college, that my mom and I lived at poverty level. She worked hard, but was paid little. We ate bean soup several nights in a row, because it was so cheap. This went on for a couple of years. I brought in a little money from my paper route, but it was not much help. 

I started getting ill and things seemed pretty dismal. One day my mom and I went to buy a pillow from the department store, and walking through the book department I was bedazzled to see a hardcover book of Walt Kelly Pogo stuff. It was a grand price of $5.00. I slobbered all over it, but didn't dare voice my want of it. Reluctantly putting it back, I walked away pretty glumly. I didn't realize my mother was watching, but she knew my love of all things Kelly, and she walked right up, calmly picked it up and went and paid for it.

That book got me through some hard times, and I still feel my boyish thrill as I leaf through it. Thanks Mom!

Can you imagine a large 288 page hardback selling brand new for $5 list price? Those were the days...

These end papers just blow me away. Kelly created this wonderful swamp world where I could escape to and actually think of these critters as human beans. I love the work of a hundred cartoonists, but Kelly is #1. I'm going to be posting a lot more Kelly. Just wait til we get to the Mars trip in '66!

Pogo is acting out Simon and Schuster's colophon here.

This guy cracks me up

Kelly wrote this book for adults, as you can see from this tiny excerpt. But even as a 12 year old, I was reading every word of it and could pretty much make sense of it. I first learned politics and far flung issues from this man.