Reading

Where would you be in life if you did not know how to read? It is hard for me to imagine not being able to read.

I started reading before going to school. Terry, my older sister, would read to me from her first grade reader. Dick and Jane and their dog Tip were no surprise to me when I started school. What a family! I had no idea that life could be that simple.

When I was in college I sold books each summer door to door. Most of my summers were spent in some state that bordered Tennessee. My second summer I sold in Kentucky. Most of the summer I was north of Lexington close to Cincinnati. Other than going to houses with streams running through the kitchen and very nice outhouses being common, this area was not that much different than where I had grown up. Then the last two weeks I sold in the coal mining area in the eastern part of the state.

There were mainly two kind of folks in this area -- coal miners and those on Appalachian aid. Most of the coal miners had nice houses and could read. Those on aid were usually further off the road, lived in a dump, and could not read. Of course the coal miners were good prospects and had bought a lot of books, and those on aid were not book buyers.

Reading is not a natural process. There are many steps to go through before a person can read. It may seem natural, but it is not. Thank God for parents, teachers, and even sisters who taught you to read.