I’ve learned a new word that may apply to what we used to call book covers. When I was an elementary school girl, we were encouraged to cover our books . . . new or old books . . . to keep them looking like new. Textbooks were covered so that they could be re-used by another student and sometimes notebooks were covered just to keep them looking nice too.
An email from Julene took me back . . . as she wrote . . .
I covered a book today ... it's an ugly little Indonesian dictionary that I want to put in the guesthouse.
I found a pretty picture in a Martha magazine and as I folded and cut and taped, I remembered you carefully showing me how when I was young. You had loved covering your books back in Brazil when you were a school-girl.
I thought I’d share this today . . . even if just to bring back your own buried memories of new pencils, notebooks and schoolbooks.
My thoughts take me to the idea that there seems to be more to book covering than meets the eye.
In one way, it’s a reminder of a time when we valued things because, not often, did we get something brand new. It was a time when our parents tried to stretch the dollar
by mending holes,
taking advantage of large hems
or giving something a good scrub.
Even when they did not have much, there was a sense of pride that caused them to make old things look cared for and beautiful.
I like that.
12 comments:
Yes .. .I remember being in elementary school and covering our text books with new dust jackets each year. Such a fun memory. .thanks for sharing your story and Julene's as well.
I remember doing these with brown paper grocery bags. Now it can be part of decorating and displaying. Love the idea. Wonderful story/memory behind the story...
I did it with brown paper bags too. Then the school started giving out covers - I remember they had a map of the world on them. I think I put mine rather sloppily (is that a word??) - they were always slipping off.
That book has been on my shelf for closer to 50 years already....and still looking good! Really a great idea!
I like that too! I've seen pictures of beautiful home libraries where the owner covers all of the books in coordinating colors. Not that I have the ambition to do that! But I agree, we need to spruce things up before we just offhandedly trash them. Thanks for the tip!
Cleaver.....I had forgotten about those dust covers. I remember them from school days too.
Well I remember covering textbooks in the sixth and seventh grades. I like the idea of covering books...especially 'Martha style'!
This post did bring back memories of cutting up heavy brown paper bags, fitting the covers and doing a bit of decorating. A few years ago I saw that stretch fabric covers were available...much prettier, washable, reusuable...and I wondered if they had been available when I was a child if we would could have afforded them. Probably not...but since they are washable I think I would have bought them for my own kids.
I like that, too! The "big hems" really caught my attention and made me remember!
Oh how I loved this school project..we were ever so happy to help the teacher with this one.
Oh I remember making book covers - we used to use wallpaper scraps. They lasted longer than paper. Now there are so many pretty papers available it would be nice to do that again.
Lovely post! Thanks for sharing!
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