BOOKS

When we were starting a family back in the 1960's and early 70's, one of the things that just seemed like a must was a set of encyclopedias. Salesmen for Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book and others were putting 'guilt trips' on all parents of young children. Our kids would grow up to be illiterate without a good encyclopedia in the house. The local library had a set or two but that wouldn't do. Alas, the price of a good set was out of my reach.

As luck would have it, the local grocery store was selling Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia. Not the greatest set, but you had to get by with what you had. You could buy them one volume at a time for about 99 cents a pop. Every week while doing the grocery shopping, my wife would pick up another volume of the 25 volume set if she had an extra dollar. More than six months it took us. Wow! Shortly after the store discontinued selling the books, we discovered volume 21 was missing. I think one of our kids left it at school or at a friends house. No problem, not much goes on from R to S.

Today, you can find almost anything in the world that you want to know right here on the Internet. Those 24 books still sit on our book shelf - I have no idea why.