Worley's World: June 2012

A friend recently introduced me to this interesting website, The New York Underground Library. The premise is simple; the results are so fascinating. Of the thousands who use the New York subway system every day, a fair number of them pass the time by reading. A photographer decided to create a sort of “library” of the books being read by the passengers and display them on a blog. One of the interesting things in so many of the pictures is the seeming contrast between the readers and the books they’re reading. Teenagers reading heavy classics; older folks reading Harry Potter; rough types reading love stories, and so on.

Which brings me to today’s post. For months now, I have wanted to start a new series of short posts on this blog that chronicles the day-to-day stuff. Blogging about the big life events is a must, but what is often more interesting over time is the mundane daily routine of life, which does change, but gradually, as family dynamics change and family members grow up.

My parents bought their first (and only) camcorder in 1986, the summer before my senior year in high school. It was the size of a small rocket launcher and cost $1,000. (Contrast that to the last camcorder Mick and I bought a year or so ago for $300 which fits into the palm of your hand.) They wanted it so much they actually financed the thing. My parents, who I believe have never had more than one credit card, which has been used probably a half dozen times, took out a loan to buy a camcorder, which was pretty new technology in 1986. Uncharacteristically cutting edge!

They now have hundreds of VHS tapes they’ve recorded, chronicling many of the important events in our family from 1986 on. One of the most interesting tapes we kids like to watch was recorded not long after they got the camcorder. It was a lazy summer day and all of us happened to be at home. Several of us kids took turns recording random bits of this and that, some silliness and laughing, and just, well, family life as it was then. Chuck practicing his guitar in his room, Heather practicing her trombone in the basement, Mom making vegetable soup, a few of us making No Bake cookies and goofing off in the kitchen, Kelly making our waterbed (a neatnik even as a a teenager ), an impromptu game of Trivial Pursuit (dating myself here). I don’t know why it’s so interesting to watch that, except that it reminds us how life was like most of the time in our family. The big, important events of our childhood stand out the most in our memories, but it’s nice to be reminded that even a regular day could be satisfying, interesting, and fun.

So, back to this blog. I’ve thought about tagging these new posts something like “Slice of Life”. What I picture for this series is to be a sort of virtual snapshot on any given day of any different Worley. I might post the latest piano piece Rachel is working on, what funny thing Grant said, that new milestone Trent just passed, what new recipe I’m trying out for dinner, new ballet moves the girls are working on, etc. The way I picture it has been with several different “Slice of Life” items for each entry, including links to whatever might be helpful or additional information e.g., recipes, web sites, books. Because the idea is becoming more complex, it’s becoming more daunting, which partially explains why I haven’t taken this idea farther than my thoughts. :-) Looking at this New York Underground Library website made me realize I could take this “Slice of Life” idea, simplify it a little and pair it with the premise behind the Underground Library project. The result is what I hope will become a sort of Worley Family Library: taking pictures of the kids and the variety of books they read as a way to chronicle who they are and what they like, and to see how that changes over time as they grow. Now I use the term “variety” somewhat loosely here. Obviously there is going to be a lot more variety in the New York Underground Library than the Worley Family Library. The riders of the New York subway come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, whereas our kids obviously have a lot in common by virtue of their having the same parents and living under the same roof. :-) But there is still quite a bit of variety here. Sometimes the books are meaty classics, sometimes they’re fluffy, sometimes they’re being read for school, mostly they’re read for pleasure. Some of the kids read more than others (maybe this will even encourage those who don’t read as much to pick up a book more often ;-) But in general, there is a lot of reading that goes on around here: books, magazines (Highlights, God’s World News), reference books, even cookbooks sometimes. So I’m going to start grabbing the camera periodically and taking a picture when I can.

In the end, these posts may only be interesting to our family (for that matter, this whole blog may only be interesting to our family :-) but the main reason I’ve created this blog is to document our life together, and I hope these pictures will enrich that.

This was the first picture I took with this idea in mind. Grant sitting by himself looking at “Hercules the Harbor Tug” by Michael O’Hearn. (I know he looks naked in this picture, but he does have something on down there.) What I love about this is that he was reading – well, “reading” – all by himself. He just saw a book that looked interesting and sat down to look at it. I love to see very young ones doing that – it’s a good omen that they’ll be future readers!