Dick and jane readers
Rush, Cindy (2011-03-12)
<<CINDY: Hi, I'm Cindy Rush I'm from Conway, Arkansas.  And loosely affiliated with the Great Bear Project although I'm not a schoolteacher.  My first recollection of reading, and I love to read, was when I was about four years old.  My older brothers and sisters had old Dick and Jane readers.  And I picked up one of those one day and was making my way through it.  I had been in nursery schools since I was three and learned my letters and learned how to spell my name.  But I started making my way through this reader.  And I went to my older brother and asked him what one of the words was.  And he told me the word and told me how to sound it out.  And I can remember like it was yesterday that something clicked like that [snapping] and from then on I read everything I could get my hands on.  And they had a public library when I was growing up, was [pause] I didn't think it was unusual I now know it was very unusual because it was very big, had many many volumes there. And I spent hours and hours in the [inaudible] Public Library.  My mother always took us there in the summer to check quick books out and always read to us.  And I love books, I love to read. To this day I love to read and it was always very important for me that my children read.  I think it's a wonderful escape and a wonderful way to pass the afternoon and a wonderful way to learn about other things, but it's something that's been a lifelong love and something that I have a hard time understanding why other people don't love as much as I do.  But that's my first experience, my first memory of reading and it's still very vivid in my mind.  Thank you. [clapping]