The mailbox. “Ooooooh, Mom, when will he come?”
Yes, eagerly, June would wait for some item she ordered from a box of cereal or me for my Bonny Braids doll. Then we got older and our dashes to the mailbox matured.
It was 1946. Garry and Caroline Myers, who were leaders in education and child development, developed Highlights magazine. We got one every month. An amazing magazine challenging us to observe. To look at things differently. To concentrate. The hidden picture page. A treasure hunt in a magazine. Over the decades, the popularity of it has never waned.
In many ways I think this ‘picture’ hunt helped me to become a writer. I learned to look at things from all angles. As a determined child of about 6, I kept on until I had found them all. If I could find all that on a page of a magazine, what could I find in the world around me?
When I write, I proceed with a blank page that is as empty as the knowledge of the subject on which I will write. Then I go “hunting.” I fan through the pages in my mind until I find one that stands out. Always a weekly treasure hunt.
As with most of you, I sat with my children at the doctor’s office looking for hidden pictures. Then, they sat with their children doing the same. A bonding experience between parent and child, sisters and brothers. A time to laugh. Always an eagerness to be the first to find the picture. Joy found in the Highlights magazine.
I have often sat in a doctor’s office, minus children, still wanting to pick up the magazine luring me into its clutches, sitting there on the waiting room table. Once I picked one up. To my dismay someone had already marked all the pictures. Lesson learned.
1946. What a great year for kids. And those kids who grow into more aware adults.
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