That post about reading Julius Caesar aloud brought back memories, Penni.
We used to read Shakespeare aloud, too, everyone taking different parts. It was a tradition in my family: my grandmother had been what in the old days was called a "dramatic reader", and regularly toured the Chattaqua Circuit, along with William Jennings Bryan. She would read soliloquies from "Hamlet" (she never limited herself to female speeches, like "The quality of mercy.."), and he would follow up with his "Cross of Gold" speech.
In any event, together with my husband, I continued the tradition with my own youngsters. The youngest of the youngsters, the "difficult" one, went through a period when he expressed disgust with having two PhDs for parents, and turned against everything "intellectual". Just the other day, I heard him reminiscing with his wife about what fun it was to read Shakespeare aloud at home, and how fortunate he was to have grown up in a family where that sort of thing was done....That touched me so much, that it almost made me cry! (And I never cry!)
Joan |
