Beverly Cleary turned 102 on Thursday. Happy Birthday from Ramona and Beezus!

f00l posted some pics said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 7:52am ET

From Ramona (a personal hero to me during childhood), I learned that the first bite from an apple is always the best bite.

http://people.com/books/beverly-cleary-turns-102-inside-the-ramona-quimby-authors-extraordinary-life/amp/

From two years ago:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/beverly-cleary-age-100/amp enter image description here

enter image description here

6 comments, 5 replies
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f00l said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 9:41am ET:

From the article in The New Yorker

I was a pretty free-range kid, and I think that was the norm during the post WWII years. All that’s gone now.

But here are Cleary’s own life memories, from much earlier:

In Cleary’s first memoir, “A Girl from Yamhill,” it becomes clear just how different that world was. One of her earliest memories is of all the bells in Yamhill ringing at once: it was the end of the First World War. She was two years old. That long, accurate memory is key to her understanding and articulating childhood. In that house, she writes, “At night I climbed the long flight of stairs alone, undressed in the dark because I could not reach the light, and went to bed. I was not afraid and did not know that other children were tucked in bed and kissed by parents not too tired to make an extra trip up a flight of stairs after a hard day’s work.”

And her father, laissez-faire parented to the extreme, was sent to the butcher shop for beefsteak at age fifteen. “Instead of buying the meat, he continued, by what means I do not know, to eastern Oregon, where he worked on ranches all summer,” she writes. When Cleary asked her grandmother if she had worried about his disappearance, she said, “Oh, my, no.” They knew he’d be back, and he was, three months later. “All his father said was, ‘Did you bring the beefsteak?’ ”

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- @f00l You were pretty, huh? That’s nice to know.
  
  Edit: I Beverly Cleary.
  
  Barney said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 9:52am ET
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- @Barney
  Mom and Dad told me I was pretty. And treated it like it was a big deal. Tried to use it to enforce conformity a bit. This did not go well.
  
  I thought I was not pretty. Sometimes I thought I was outright ugly.
  
  And often enough I worked at being ugly.
  
  Masses of mud as an accessory does wonders for horrifying one’s Mom.
  
  f00l said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 10:11am ET
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- @f00l I hear mud does wonders for the skin.
  
  Barney said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 10:27am ET
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- @Barney @f00l
  /youtube I wanna be pretty like her
  
  2many2no said Sat, Apr 14th 2018 at 1:29am ET
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Collin1000 said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 9:13pm ET:

Elementary school teacher here - my classroom is full of Beverly Cleary books. Her work is still read today. The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Dear Mr. Henshaw are popular reads for sure.

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ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 9:53pm ET:

Henry Huggins and Ribsy are my two favorite people!

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- From the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden in Portland
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 13th 2018 at 10:03pm ET
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f00l said Sat, Apr 14th 2018 at 7:46pm ET:

I must have had a “smart day” a few years ago. I just discovered I own all her audible stuff.

Happy Me!

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tinamarie1974 said Sat, Apr 14th 2018 at 10:50pm ET:

Love Beverly Cleary. I cant wait for my niece to be old enough so I can introduce her to Ramona

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Kidsandliz said Sat, Apr 14th 2018 at 10:59pm ET:

Her books are wonderful.

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