Making Memories
When I was a little girl, I watched Captain Kangaroo on our black and white television before walking to school.
Me in 1959
Ray remembers watching it, too. The Captain and his sidekicks, Mr. Green Jeans and Dennis the handyman and the puppets Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit, entertained and educated us. We were thrilled when Captain Kangaroo (whose real name was Bob Keeshan) made an appearance in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, when our children were young. Getting to see our childhood hero and share him with our children was very special. My Aunt Emily has given me the books from her childhood so I can share them with our grandchildren. I’ve enjoyed sharing her 1957 Captain Kangaroo and the Panda Golden Book with another generation.
Two memories of Captain Kangaroo stand out to me: the many times that Mr. Moose made ping pong balls fall on the Captain and the story of Stone Soup, a Caldecott Honor book written and illustrated by Marcia Brown. Perhaps you know this European folk tale about three soldiers who trick villagers into contributing bits and pieces to make a large kettle of soup. When the soldiers come into the village, they ask the villagers if they have food. When the villagers say that they do not, the soldiers tell them that they will make stone soup. The soldiers then boil water and stones in a large kettle over an open fire. The villagers are amazed that the soldiers can make soup out of stones. One by one they go home and bring back vegetables and other contributions to add to the soup.
My email friend Betty reminded me of Captain Kangaroo and Stone Soup when she sent a story about the soup she made last Thursday. Wanting some chicken noodle soup on that cloudy, cool day, she gathered what she could find in her kitchen to throw together a soup that wasn’t her traditional recipe. She said that two words popped into her mind that day: rock soup and then the word Mother. Sometimes when she was a girl her mother made “throw together” soup and when Betty asked her what she was making, she would answer, “Rock soup.” As a child, Betty couldn’t imagine what she meant.
Finally on Thursday, Betty Googled rock soup while her wide egg noodles finished cooking. She was surprised when she actually found an answer. For the first time, she learned what Ray and I learned on Captain Kangaroo. Betty went on to say that she thinks about and misses her mother all the time. On Thursday she was thankful for the memory of her mother and rock soup. She said that she misses her mother’s cooking but most of all, she misses her. I know how she feels. I miss my mother, too.
My mama and me
Make some memories today, Mama. Today’s the best day of all to do that.
Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
“Many daughters have done nobly,
But you excel them all.”
Proverbs 31:28-29