Posted by Eric Abraham on March 27, 2008 at 02:25:27 from 63.245.163.92 user EricAbraham.
A bit down the list I mentioned that Dick's detective work in Big Six influenced me to start reading about and collecting cameras. I also became very interested in camping, allthough I did not do much until years later.
After reading Missee Lee and the escape by becoming a Chinese Dragon lead by Roger, the Dragon Tamer, I instigated a full fledged Chinese Dragon with, of course, me as the Dragon Tamer! I used my cousin's Cub Scout troop as the legs of the Dragon which made an appearence in the Enid, Oklahoma Boy Scout Circus in 1949. My mother and I made the head of cardboard boxes, paper mache and paint - the body was made of dyed bedsheets with large polka-dots.
I also became very interested in the British Isles and read everything I could at the time - customs, history and more; even writing to, if I remember correctly, the British tourist bureau and receiving tons of information about the Festival of Britain celebrations of 1951. I was extremely excited to find on the fantastic National Geographic map of Britain that the stories had taken place in real places! These tales got me started in so many directions and subdirections - just like some of the threads on TarBoard!
I did a ton of drawings of my ideas of the further adventures of the Swallows and Amazons. I became very aware of boats and sailing, but in Oklahoma, it was difficult to do any follow up.
It would be interesting to hear of how reading the Stories directly resulted in changes or other immediate physical manifestations in the life and outlook of the reader.
Eric Abraham - Lucas, Kansas
(As a reply to one of Jock's earlier posts, a tutorial for computer illiterates on posting pictures, etc. on TarBoard would most welcome to me. I tried a couple of times, with no success. I have a picture of the above mentioned Dragon which I just made into a three dimensional drawing last month.)