A Passel of Books

It was a good weekend for rummaging through books.  I always wait for book sales to occur once or twice a year, but afterward I have to squeeze my existing collection together a bit more or start tossing some out. My shopping started in Moorhead when the public library sponsored their spring sale in a crowded basement room. I have always had good luck finding some choice titles there. In the afternoon it was over to our church for a huge rummage sale where a few racks of books sold. Finally, Churches United in conjunction with Ferguson Books laid out a large array of books at another location.

We won’t bore readers here by listing many of the titles purchased, but a few might be of general interest. I grabbed the small volume titled Hiroshima right off when I spotted it. The author John Hersey details survivors’ experiences after the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. I had a version before, but somehow it slipped away. Like many other books I’ve held in my hands, I didn’t take it seriously at the time. Lately, after hearing how well critics think Hersey tells the story, I looked for another copy.

A tattered paperback book begged to be picked up and glanced through. The pages in Nothing to Do But Stay tumbled open to a passage about wild horses rubbing up against a schoolhouse in severe winter weather. Because of deep snow and bitter cold, some of the kids stayed in the schoolhouse so they wouldn’t miss attending. A frightening noise woke them in the night and they became concerned one wall would cave in on them. They had heard a small herd of wild ponies finding shelter on the lea side of the building. In general, the book tells the story of a Norwegian lady who came to North Dakota, homesteaded by herself for a few years, and then married and raised a large family.

That story caught my eye because of an experience remembered in my wife’s family. Horses used to rub against their sod house walls, too, and they’d always fear for the glass windows breaking. Mary’s grandma heard noises and horse whinnying in the night and tried to wake her husband. He did not take it seriously enough to check but only continued sleeping. The next morning their neighbor came and told them their barn had burned down in the night. Horses trapped inside had cried to be freed from the barn.

A prize find was David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest. He’s a great writer and historian, and this book was always on my wish list. A couple of his titles were in my collection - The Fifties and The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. Halberstam never liked being fooled by anyone, and when it came to the Vietnam War he came into conflict with the story being told us. He traveled with the soldiers, saw the real stories, and his written reports infuriated military and government officials in Washington who tried to whitewash the war.

Halberstam also wrote sport stories. He authored The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship so I bought it at the Churches United sale without any forethought. Here is the first line in the book. “Ted was dying, and the idea for the final trip, driving down to Florida to see him one last time, was Dominic’s.” Ted in this case was the baseball great Ted Williams and Dominic was Dom DiMaggio. For some background a few players on the Boston Red Sox team in the 1940s had formed a tight bond of friendship that lasted into their old age. Now because Ted was ailing, it prompted them to drive together to Ted’s home. That foursome was Ted Williams, Dom (brother of Joe) DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, and Johnny Pesky. 

One of Williams’s qualities the group cherished was his caring about and generosity towards his friends. They felt strongly about wishing him well this one last time. Of course, this was the Ted known for his exceptional batting ability as a hitter and achieving a .406 batting average in 1941. In addition he earned honors with batting titles, most valuable player, triple crowns, all-star games, and membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

The friends had all grown old like Ted had, and it took them three days to drive down to Ted’s home. Upon arriving they were shocked: Ted had dropped to 130 pounds, but he became stronger by the minute when he realized who had come. It is a good story filled with lots of baseball stories. For one dollar, I got a pretty good deal. 

Curiosity drives my reading habits and I practice what I preach about the necessity of reading history books. Sales like these give me an opportunity to do it very economically. Wouldn’t you know it. I just learned of another sale on May 17 at the West Fargo library.