Spellbinding...

I have been moving things back and forth from room to room, trying to get situated in my old studio space now that Nathalie has moved out. One basket yielded some old treasures, including this speller that belonged to my grandfather...

This little book is over a hundred years old, and proudly inscribed, "Herbert Killen," with three stars marching along the top of the word,"Speller," and more stars underneath...


We are always amazed to find out little tidbits about our elders, and here it is, proof positive: Herbert Roy Killen was a doodler!


Another little known fact, he evidently had quite a crush on Louise Walker (not my grandmother, I might add)...


I do know that his mother was quite religious, but was tickled by both these messages, solemn, yet playful in a way I never expected from her. One reads: "This book is pretty old. Your old mother." And the second inscription reads: "Herbert Roys Mother Killen went all through this book. Now pray, pray on, pray always. Amen."

I'm not sure what kind of grades he got, but he surely had the right people on his side. The back panel, thought tattered and partially missing, bears my grandfather's name again, numerous Hs and Ks, some ink blots, and his own additions to the great seal of California...

I knew my grandfather to be a quiet, gentle man who loved gardening and reading. He was of a generation of men who changed into khaki pants and shirt and rubber soled canvas shoes to tend his garden, and I don't remember him raising his voice but once or twice. More often I think about him lifting me up to see the tiny bird eggs hatching in his hanging planters. It is something else again to think about him as a boy, brow furrowed, pen in hand, wading through the Book Two Speller...

This one is getting tucked into my little wicker case of treasures. More on that later...