@likelyjanlukas @lynwyl @ned
My parents read to us copiously and helped satisfy the curiosity that would lead all of us to read before we got to school. Then the shelves of books got supplemented by the school library, the public library and the book mobile, along with additions to the family stacks. I read everything I could get my hands on about war and airplanes and I think it must have been disturbing to my folks because my mother got me to read Catch-22 in Grade 7...it had a picture of a B-25 on the cover so I dove right in. I think it might have been my first encounter with cognitive dissonance and I know I engaged in a lot of head-scratching and wild speculation as I got farther and farther into the book. I was removed from my social studies class when Mr. Phipps was off conducting an assembly, and Mr. Gustafson, a gym teacher, was ensuring that we didn't tear the place apart, though in reality, everyone in that class was delighted to have 45 minutes of uninterrupted reading time with works of our choosing. I must have been snickering, because Mr. G. came over, took the book from me and opened it to the part where Nately's whore was hitting Yossarian over the head with a stiletto heel (I had been reading about how Milo Minderbinder bought eggs for 7 cents in Malta, sold them for 5 cents in Crete and made a profit--details fuzzy as this was in 1962). Sent off to the office where the vice-principal, a retired Marine, phoned my mother to ensure that she had actually given me the book to read. Ensued a conversation where the bulk of the time was spent with the phone held back off his ear and I got to hear the spectacle of my mother berating the VP for violating my first-amendment rights and doubting the wisdom of the parental couple. Eventually, he returned the receiver to the cradle, gave me back the offending tome and told me to stick it in my locker and see that henceforth it stayed out of the school.