Category Archives: 1960s

375P: Boy on Farm Imagines Different Jobs (Solved!)

5 Replies

Mother is busy,
She’s making a pie.
But we do the farm work,
My dad and I.
Together, together,
We scatter the seeds,
We shear the sheep,
We pull the weeds.
We milk the cows,
We pet the goats,
We fix the fence,
We cut the oats . . .
Hand in hand along with Dad,
Around the farm with my dog Lad.

Winter, springtime, summer, fall,
Ours is the nicest farm of all.
But sometimes I wonder what I will be
When I am as old as – twenty-three!
I think of this, I think of that,
Till there I am in a trim gray hat . . .

I’m a mailman!
Tramp tramp tramp
I walk for blocks,
And I put Something Special in everyone’s box!
Woof, woof, say the dogs
As I walk through their yards,
But on I go, carrying
Letters and cards.
Then after I’ve brought
Everybody some mail,
I pick up a hammer
And drive in a nail –
Wham!
And there I am . . .

I’m a carpenter!
Bang goes my hammer,
I’m nailing down floors
And putting in windows
And hanging up doors.
Zing goes my saw
And I never stop
Till I’ve built a fine house
With a red roof on top.
Then I pack up my hammer,
I say, “Toodle-oo!”
And quick as a wink, There I am . . .
at the zoo!

I’m a zoo-keeper, see,
With a broom, and a key.
I’m walking the camels
And feeding the bears,
I’m stoking the lions
And sweeping their lairs.
I’m teaching the monkeys
And training the seals.
I’m giving the hippos
E-NOR-MOUS big meals!
Now evening is coming, the zoo has to close . . .

Presto and Change-o!
I wear a red nose . . .
Now I’m a clown
With a painted-up face.
I’m tumbling and jumping
All over the place.
My clown suit is baggy
(It’s puffed up with air!).
I wave to the children
I see everywhere.
See my duck in his bib?
See my dog in his bow?
See my string of balloons,
And my nose all aglow?
But all of a sudden
I catch on a hook,
And everyone shouts to me,
“Look, mister, look!”
Bang goes my clown suit-
A Shoosh! Then a pop! . . .

Then I hold up my hand
And the traffic must stop!
For I’m a policeman
At Walnut and Main.
Are you looking for Somewhere?
I’ll stop to explain.
Now, go, Jim and Johnny.
Go, Kathy and Joan.
Stop, Little Puppy,
Out walking alone!
Then all of a sudden
My day’s work is done,
So I find me a horse
(With a saddle, of course!)
And I strap on my gun. . . .

Now I’m a cowboy, a-riding along,
A-jingling my spurs and a-singing my song.
Across the Great Prairie I ride far and near
To round up the cattle and rope a wild steer.
Then I tie up my horse (and I feed him, of course!).

Yippi-yi! Now I’m going. . . .
I jump in a boat,
And away I go rowing.
Now I’m a fisherman
Out on the sea,
Where there’s nothing but water
And fishes – and me!
Riding a wave
I see something afloat.
It’s a whale come to visit-
He’s rocking my boat!
Then whoosh! comes a wave,
And it gives me a smack . . .

And I call to my daddy,
“Hello there, Im back!”
“Just in time for a snack,”
Says my daddy.
And then . . .
Off we go again!
Together, together,

(scan cuts off here)

I have a PDF with some scans of an illustrated children’s poem from my mother’s childhood [see below]. Sadly, the cover and title pages were lost long ago. The scan does not contain all of the pages. I am attaching the scans as well as a transcript of the text. It is an illustrated poem about a boy on a farm who likes to daydream about different jobs, such as a zookeeper, clown, policeman, etc. My mom read this book as a child around the mid-late 1960s / early 1970s.
I suspect (but cannot prove) this story may have some link to Western Publishing. (Western publishing was based out of Racine, Wisconsin and my family is from southeast Wisconsin.) We would love to figure out the title, author, and/or illustrator of this book!
I have reached out to various forums and the Library of Congress but no luck so far. I really appreciate the opportunity to ask the Stump the Bookseller community! If there is anything I need to do to correct of enhance my submission, please do not hesitate to let me know!

375O: Children’s anthology of magical stories

Leave a reply

The book had maybe a dozen short stories, all with some magic involved. One of the stories, I think the first, had a father bringing home an ornamental Chinese horn (rhino?) that was rumored to have magical properties. The father’s son took the horn to bed with him, holding it tight, and just before going to sleep wished for a series of things to happen to people he know around him. The next day everything that he wished came true, including people hearing silver bells tinkling when a lady he liked started talking. Another story in the book involved a professor/researcher, maybe named Dexter, researching Roman history, and late one night he falls asleep and dreams he becomes a goose, and has a fight with another goose over a lady goose, and it turns out that all the squawklng ends up being the very thing that warns the Romans of an impending barbarian attack on one of their cities. So the researcher actually became part of Roman history in the dream. The book was probably published in the 50s or 60s, certainly no later than the early 1980’s. I remember reading it after my mom checked it out of the Mayfield Regional Library, near Mayfield High School.

375I: My South Poem

4 Replies

A piece of a poem that I read in a book at the Dartmouth College Library in the late sixties contained these lines (or something close):

“I think there is a much more terrible thing. To be raised without one’s own consent In the cave of the mind. Like a faded fish. And to go as assuredly blind in the soul. As a Saint”
I think the poem was titled “My South”, I don’t remember the author.

354T: War Orphan Adopted by GI

2 Replies

I’m looking for a book I read as a boy in the mid 1970s . It probably was written in the 1950s or 1960s.  My memory says it was titled the journey home or long journey home but having searched for that for years with no luck I’m prepared to believe my memory is incorrect.  It was about a war orphan making his away to America to be adopted or having been adopted by a GI.

354R: Fairies in the Forest

1 Reply

Don’t remember the title but here’s what I recall:

This is a children’s book from the 1960s or even late 1950s with a narrow/slim size. I have attached a photo of a similar book that might even be from the same series.

It has a shiny light blue cover. The content is about signs of fairies in the forest/nature. It’s a series of photos with little text. It shows photos of dew, spider webs, etc. might have an illustration of a fairy on the front of the book.

374I: Vintage children’s book about two raccoon brothers

4 Replies

The book was published sometime in the 1960s to 1970s. It had full-color illustrations and multiple stories presented like chapters about two raccoon brothers. The book was probably written for children between 4-7 years of age, or early readers. The only two chapters I remember were about not chewing with your mouth open and having a hard time falling asleep. In the first story, the older brother is annoyed by his younger brother chewing with his mouth open, making a noisy mess. The younger raccoon tries to chew with his mouth closed but has a hard time, even going so far as to tearfully pull his cheeks out so he doesn’t bite them. Eventually, the older brother relents and the younger brother happily resumes his messy, noisy eating. In the second story, the younger raccoon is struggling to fall asleep in his top bunk. The older brother, in the bed below, advises his brother to say goodnight to his body, part by part, starting with his toes. But by the time the young raccoon gets to his (knees, hips, stomach? can’t remember), his toes have “woken up” and he is sad. I don’t remember much more about this book other than I loved it very much as a young child in the 80s, and it was a gift from my beloved grandmother.

373U: Vintage Picture Book, Kitten cleans room to find rain gear so he can play in the rain with his friends

Leave a reply

Kitten wants to play in the rain with two friends, but he has to clean his room to find his rain gear, which includes, boots, hat, jacket. His friends check in on him and help him clean, they even find a sail boat that they can play with in the puddles. The book is NOT the obvious Three Kittens, Rainy-Day Kitten, etc. . . been searching for years now. I think it was published sometime between 1940s-1990s, And I want to say it had a beige/yellow/tan cover with a spot illustration.