Finding an old friend

Those of us who love books, save a lot of them...on shelves and in boxes in my small home.  But I also make sure the ones on the shelves are ones I either have already read more than once, or plan to do so soon. That plan doesn't usually actually come about unfortunately.

So when my Sepia Saturday friend Gail started talking about an old favorite chilldren's book about Christmas, which included a story about Pegasus the winged horse, I knew exactly the same book that had been in my life.  Gail also had a doll similar to one I received in the early 50's...and she got hers later in her life.  But that book is the focus today. However, here is my post for the Sepia Saturday theme which started it all.

Her first comment was:

La NightingailDecember 18, 2019 at 12:41 AM

Wonderful photos - both from the present, and in the past. I remember our Christmas trees looking like yours in 1953 - with tinsel. I didn't mind putting the tinsel on, but I hated having to take it off carefully so we could save it for the next year. I had a Betsy McCall doll too - but not until I was in my early 20s. :) I found her in a discount store on a lunch break. She came complete with several outfits and I just had to have her. She was small - only about 7" tall. You mentioned in your comment on my Sepia post that you remembered the story of Pegasus in a Christmas book. Was that the Golden Book of Christmas which featured green tissue expanding honeycomb Christmas trees inside the front and back covers, by chance? I loved that book and I did give mine to my grandchildren. They're all grown now and I sometimes wish I had that book back.

I thought I'd given it to one or another of my grandchildren...I knew my sons wouldn't really care that much about it, though maybe when they were at my knee for bedtime stories, I might have read from it.  But there it was tucked in with lots of other Christmas books all about decorating and cooking for the holidays.

That was the day which Gail had written her second comment about the book.  I quote it here:

La NightingailDecember 19, 2019 at 2:01 PM

About the Golden Book of Christmas, did you ever watch the TV series M.A.S.H.? I had forgotten the title of that book I'd had as a child and wanted to find a copy of it in a used book store but without the proper title, no luck. Then an article appeared in our local newspaper written by a columnist for a Los Angeles paper talking about the book. I still wasn't sure if she was talking about the book I was looking for, or another, so I called her. Turned out it wasn't her book, but belonged to a friend so she couldn't assure me it was the one I was looking for, but offered to contact her friend & have her call me if she was willing to do so. Turned out her friend was the gal who played the part of nurse Kelly on M.A.S.H. and she did call me and we chatted for almost half an hour about the book which turned out, indeed, to be the right one & with the proper information, I was finally able to find it! :)

And my reply:

Barbara RogersDecember 19, 2019 at 7:38 PM

Gail...you are psychic...tonight was the MASH episode re-run where Hawkeye finally notices that Kelly is a woman! She did a great job of telling him what her feelings were! And I always admired her character! That's so great that you talked with her...and she knew about our Golden Christmas Book. That's wonderful!

And then, having found my book, I wrote this:

Barbara RogersDecember 19, 2019 at 7:42 PM

Oh my goodness! I still have it! I'm going to blog about it...probably publish tomorrow some photos, and the fun we've had talking about our favorite story!

You can still see where the pop-up folded tissue Christmas Tree was glued to the opening page.  I didn't remember the tree until Gail mentioned it...and there aren't any glue marks on the inside of the back cover.

 The title page

 And there' the 1947 copyright...as well as "Pegasus and the Star."

 There are 96 some pages, so I'm not photographing them all.  I think I'll get better results scanning them.  Yes Gail, I'll send them to you too, so you can enjoy them!

I feel like that little kid again. I got this book probably when I was much younger than when I got Betsy McCall, maybe 7 or 8 years old.  I had as many of the Little Golden Books as any child probably, and remember reading them myself, probably by age 5 or 6. That was before Disney and his artists took over much of American children's books.

Thanks again, Gail, for triggering this fond memory!