A question from the book "A Mothers Legacy" What was your favorite pastime as a child?
That is a hard question, because I enjoyed many things.
One thing I do remember is many happy hours spent drawing.
I loved to draw horses.
When I was about ten I got a big Walter Foster " Basic Drawing" book for Christmas, and I copied the pictures of the horses over and over until I could draw them from memory.
We didn't have very many books in our home.
We had an "Encyclopedia Brittanica" and a set of "Book of Knowledge" books that had some pictures in them.
I would scour them for any horse pictures I could find to copy.
I can also remember walking a long way to the Library with my older sister in the summer. I was very excited to be able to check out books about and with pictures of horses.
I liked to draw many other animals, but horses were always my very favorite subject!
I must have been about seven or eight.
I was in second or third grade.
I know I was old enough to walk home from school by myself, and yet I was still a little bit afraid.
But, I had a secret friend.
Someone who could keep me safe.
Someone who I could talk to if I wanted.
I kept him in my desk at school during the day, and in my hand or pocket when I walked to school and back. (We didn't have backpacks.)
He was a small, black, plastic horse.
He was magnificent, strong and brave.
He was mine.
One day my teacher caught me talking to him.
She took him away.
We were not allowed to bring toys to school.
I don't remember how long she kept him. It probably was only for the rest of that day, but I was devastated.
He was my magic. My Black.
I remember she told me to leave him at home, or I she would take him away for the rest of the year!
I did.
School was not safe anymore.
