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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

[Hilarie is sitting on a couch]

Hilarie Burton: Hi guys! It is time for the SoGoPro Book Club Pick, and I'm really, really excited about this one because it is my absolute favorite book of all time. It is written by Ray Bradbury, who I've named my rat after; It's 'Dandelion Wine' and it is a beautiful book about summertime, and summertime's coming, so let's jump into it. I think you guys will like this. It is about two brothers, Doug and Tom. Doug is the older one. Tom is the younger one.

"Doug brought out a yellow nickeled tablet. He brought out a yellow pencil. He opened the tablet. He licked the pencil.

'Tom,' he said, 'You and your statistics gave me an idea. I'm going to do the same, keep track of things. For instance, you realize that every summer we do things over and over like we did the whole darn summer before?'

'Like what, Doug?'

'Like making Dandelion wine. Like buying these new tennis shoes. Like shooting off the first fire cracker of the year. Like making lemonade. Like getting slivers in our feet. Like picking wild fox grapes. Every year the same thing, the same way, no change, no difference. That's one half of the summer Tom.'

'What's the other half?'

'Things we do for the first time ever.'

'Like eating olives?'

'No bigger than that. Like finding out maybe grandpa or Dad don't know everything in the whole world.'

'They know every darn thing there is to know and don't you forget it!'

'Tom, c'mon, don't argue. I already got it written down under discoveries and revelations. They don't know everything, but it's no crime, that I discovered too!'

'What other crazy stuff you got in there?'

'I'm alive.'

'Heck, that's old!'

'Thinking about it, noticing it, is new. You do things, and don't watch, and then all of a sudden you look and see what you're doing and it's really the first time. I'm going to divide the summer up into two parts. First part of the tablet is Rights and Ceremonies. The first root beer pop of the year, the first time running barefoot through the grass of the year, the first time almost drowning in the lake of the year, first watermelon, first mosquito, first harvest of dandelions. Those are the things we do over and over and never think about it. Now here in the back, like I said, is discoveries and revelations, or maybe illuminations. That's a swell word! Or intuitions, okay? In other words, you do an old, familiar thing, like bottling dandelion wine, and you put that under rights and ceremonies, and then you think about it, and what you think, crazy or not, you put under discoveries and revelations. Here's what I got on the wine. Every time you bottle it, you got a whole chunk of 1928 put away, safe. How do you like that, Tom?'

'I got lost a mile back somewhere.'

'Let me show you another. Up front, under ceremonies, I got first argument and licking of summer of 1928 by Dad, morning of June 24th. In back, under revelations, I got the reasons that grownups and kids fight, is they belong to separate races. Look at them! Different from us. Look at us! Different from them. Separate races, and never the 'twain shall meet.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Tom.'

'Doug! Doug, you hit it, you hit it, that's right! That's exactly why we don't get along with mom or dad! Trouble, trouble, from sunrise to supper. Boy, you are a genius!'

'Anytime in the next three months you see something done over and over, tell me, think about it, and then tell me that. Come labor day, we'll add up the summer and see what we got!'

'I got a statistic for you right now, grab your pencil, Doug. There are five billion trees in the world. I looked it up. Under every tree is a shadow, right? So then, what makes night? I'll tell you. Shadows crawling out from under five billion trees! Think about it! Shadows running around in the air, muddying the water you might say. If only we could figure a way to keep those darn five billion shadows under those trees, we could stay up half the night, Doug, because there would be no night! There you are! Something old, and something new!'

'That's new and old alright.' Douglas licked the yellow pencil, who's name he dearly loved. 'Say it again.'

'Shadows are under nearly five billion trees.'"

So there you go guys, maybe you need to make a list of your own, and start enjoying summer! See you soon!"