"History" is a novel, lived by real people.

I had the great good fortune to be raised by educated, informed and very loving grandparents who recognized the fact that parents and those who function as parents have the obligation to educate and foster education whenever possible.

Thus, I could read when I was about 3 and started school just before my 5th birthday. At school my greatest joy was a picture dictionary with drawings, rather crude by today's air-brushed standards, but fascinating to me. I asked Mrs Spangler if Icould take it home - not allowed - but when she discovered that I could read many of the entries and was interested in all the pictures of all the exotic people and places, I was allowed to read it whenever my regular class work was finished.

There was a public library about 5 blocks away and once I was in the 2nd grade, I was able to get my own library card. That, added to my grandfather's extensive private library, which included Bulwer-Lytton of "It was a dark and stormy night...." fame or infamy, provided me with years of enjoyment.

And then, I discovered Richard Halliburton. My mother had been given 2 of his books which I practically memorized. He made history, geography, cultural anthropology (probably he would not have agreed with the latter) living, breathing entities for me.

For Christmas, when I was 9, I was given "The Secret Garden" which read in about 3 days - we had a tv but "Howdy Doody" was the only program I watched which left plenty of time to play outside with my neighbors (double-dutch), got to dancing class and read.

Add to that the fact that 98% of my teachers were excellent: they arrived early, stayed late, spent their holidays planning for the next lessons, knew all of the children in school by name, could tell if we had family problems and never sent a note home, they called the parents themselves.

My grandfather always said that "history is a novel, lived by real people" - made sense to me!

So, when I later heard people say that history is boring, stupid, unnecessary, I never understood that attitude. Now, I do.

Of necessity, this book is like condensed milk. "Just the facts, ma'm." And, thus, it is a litany, like the "begats" in the Bible, of names and dates, fac ts and figures, skeleton with very little "meat" on the bones. As a refresher, it's wonderful. As a memory trainer, it's excellent. But,......after a while, I have difficulty separating the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Sumarians, Medes, Babylonians, Persians and who did what to whom when.

What stands out: the word "paper" comes from the word "papyrus", the Great Pyramid of Cheops was one of the wonders of the Ancient World and is the only one still around, and
Tiglath-Pileser has to be the coolest possible name for a person!

What also stands out is how I, and others I have begun to observe, spend/waste our time. It takes a concerted effort to read, re-read, digest and/or absorb the import of what I have read, and anything which takes a concerted effort, takes time.

The life-sustaining duties get done: work, grocery shopping (yuck!), floor-mopping, shower- scrubbing. Also, 30 minutes practice on the keyboard or guitar, and some sort of exercise, usually dancing along with youtube, every day. Notice that I didn't mention dusting?