I'm 2/3rds of the way through Harry Potter. Considering I didn't get to start reading it until yesterday afternoon, that's pretty good. Certainly not up to my usual speed but that's mainly because I don't really want to finish it.
I remember coming out of the theater after seeing the second Star Wars. Not the original second one but the second second one. I can't remember all the names...jeesh. Anyway, we were desolate. You knew where it was going, you knew what was gonna happen to Anakin but we sooo didn't want it to end and have it happen. It didn't help that the actor reminded us so much of Cory at the time. I remember just sobbing and thinking that so many horrible endings were coming. Anakin, Frodo (it was before the last Lord of the Rings) and Harry Potter....
It wasn't even that bad things were going to happen to the characters as much as it was that the stories would end. And then what? So much of my son's childhood.....and then my daughter's too. When we got to the end of Little House on the Prairie together...and now when she finished Harry Potter and thrust it in my hands and said, "hurry Mom, read it, we HAVE to talk about it!!!" Every book that the kids read growing up, I read. Even the teenage girl stuff, Princess Diaries and the Traveling Pants. Even the Boxcar Children and Animaniacs. We poured through all the Little House, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables (well, I did), Chronicles of Narnia, Indian in the Cupboards, Winnie the Pooh (just the "pooh" alone will send me and Rhia to spasms of giggling), so many books, so little time. Even the horrible PG County Schools required reading crap that made them never want to read again, I read them all. I never could get them to do the Wrinkle in Time or my Jane Austin books but I won't give up hope. And I'm still not too keen on Cory's recent horror book obsession but fortunately I had already read alot of Stephen King so we can still chat about it.
But what now? Where are our new heros? Where are the Frodos, Anakins, Lukes, and yes, the Harry's? Are they out there and we are all too old now to know it? Or is the new literature as bad as I think it is? Who is the next Harry?
We have so many great memories, Harry and I. Cory had stopped reading--all the books he had to read in JR/Sr High were so depressing, he just didn't want to read anymore. I was beside myself. Reading is my passion, it's the one single thing that I believed helped me to survive my childhood. A great story and I was away in another land. I read anything I could get my hands on, sometimes over and over again. The greatest gift I wanted to give my children was a love of reading. Many an hour was spent laying on the floor beside their cribs (yes that young) reciting Goodnight Moon, Bumblebear, Go Dog, Go, Owl Moon, Velveteen Rabbit, we read them so much we had them memorized. Still do today.
I realize I am over emotional about Harry. Being on vacation in the Outer Banks when the 3rd (?) one came out and Barry and Cory on a quest to find it.....same as this past Saturday morning with Rhia.....who was too young when the first one came out, even though we still read it to her, she has caught up on her own as she's gotten older. Sigh.
Thanks J K Rowling. Thanks Harry, Ron & Hermoine. And Anakin & Frodo too. The memories are irreplaceable. They are my children's childhood.
I guess I have to go finish it.
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