Little Bear, Sal and One Unforgettable Forgettable Day - NYTimes.com

Little Sal?s mother slowly backed away. (She was old enough to be shy of bears, even very small bears like Little Bear.) Then she turned and walked away quickly to look for Little Sal. ?Blueberries for Sal,? by Robert McCloskey

Could any picture book be more charming than ?Blueberries for Sal??

As a child, I was thrilled (and pleasantly anxious) by the account of that afternoon?s parallel adventures: ?Little Bear and Little Sal?s mother and Little Sal and Little Bear?s mother were all mixed up with each other among the blueberries on Blueberry Hill.? I loved the mothers? silly mistakes, and their worry and instant determination to find their children. And the fact that the mix-up was solved before Little Sal or Little Bear had time to be scared. I loved the sound that the berries made as they fell into Little Sal?s tin pail: ?Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!?

Nowadays, I also find myself studying the clothes the mother is wearing; and estimating the year the action takes place, based on the kitchen furniture; and imagining the kind of life where you go blueberry picking with your daughter and can the berries for the winter.

And I still get the same sense of comfort and security from these two timeless mothers and children, all mixed up on Blueberry Hill.

I recently read James Salter?s wonderful novel, ?Light Years,? and I was struck by his observation, of a family afternoon at the beach with a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old: ?These years are endless, but they cannot be remembered.? This line reminds me of my Secret of Adulthood, ?The days are long, but the years are short.? These small adventures are precious, because they help us to remember days that are both vivid and forgettable.

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Source: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/little-bear-sal-and-one-unforgettable-forgettable-day/

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