Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Blankets ch.1 & VBS

First off, I sort of read all of Blankets in one setting, but I'll try to go chapter by chapter with this thing.

The setting of Blankets in general feels like my hometown, only my immediate family is ridiculously liberal, so I grew up completely on the periphery of the whole pious rural lifestyle.

The Sunday school teacher, the blindly attentive class, the hellfire and brimstone, all remind of one scary and bewildering day spent in a Baptist vacation bible school program as a kid. I tagged along with my cousin, whom I was visiting and following everywhere (I was maybe seven). I don't understand how parents allow things like that to be heaped upon their children in such a setting. It's like reading Steven King novels to them as bedtime stories. The activities were bizarre to me to, like in depth bible study that involved matching scriptures on a chalkboard. I guess the word "vacation" misled me. I was very much expecting to have fun. I gave up an entire day running through my grandparents' apple orchard for that, and I very much doubt my soul received any kind of redemption or anything out of the whole ordeal. Snack time, however, was decent.

1 comment:

David Paine said...

I, too, enjoyed snack time.