I’m one of those who has always loved to read and turned that passion into a profession where I get to read massive amounts every day.
For those who love to read and might be considering a job change, let me caution you. Yes, reading facts and data, going to exciting news events and ball games is the fun part. Then you have to come back to the office and write a story day, after day, after day.
But the best part is I still get a kick out of reading what I wrote when the paper hits the streets of Clarksdale.
Young reader
My mother read to me and my two brothers nightly.
Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Book, Charlotte’s Web, Black Beauty, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson, Watership Down.
At an even younger age we read all of Dr. Seuss’s books, The Story of Ferdinand and Mother Goose.
Momma would sit in a rocking chair at the door and read as we drifted of to sleep.
She also carried us to Carnegie Library on a regular basis where we got to know Librarian Ester Pippen, who also played the organ at church.
The Air Base also had a library .and Daddy carried us there, where we consumed all the books about airplanes, Apollo spaceships, famous pilots and people. Then we had conversations with him about the wild blue yonder.
I can remember my Grandfather -- Floyd Ingram No. 1 -- reading Josephus, history books and Bible commentaries and carrying on philosophical conversations with my mother at the kitchen table.
He was a carpenter by trade and didn’t have much education, but he was a well-read man.
As a teenager I fell in love with The Hardy Boys, science fiction, James Bond, Doc Savage and World War II history.
I’ve had people tell me I have ink in my blood. No, I have a love of reading in my red blood.
Skimming
I read an article recently about how we read differently today.
We skim stories on our computers and cell phones looking for data, talking points and cute sayings.
I think that is why Facebook is so popular.
Let me assure you, I’m not saying that is wrong. Any college grad has learned to do it to get through tomorrow’s lesson. I do it all day long in my business.
But it talked about that deep read, where we read to consume literature that has a deep message. Like a good meal, each page is a bite that is to be savored and enjoyed.
The book you carry on a summer vacation, to grandmother’s house during the holidays, your Bible, or that book you enjoy every night when the house gets quiet, that’s a deep read that fills the mind and satisfies the soul.
Reading is learning
Your Clarksdale Press Register has a story on Page One about The Third Grade Reading Gate and the test scores of local schools.
It’s obvious there is much work to do in this community.
I will be the first to admit growing up White, in a Middle Class family where everyone in the house read books is very different from the real world around us that is Clarksdale and the Mississippi Delta.
Video games and that cell phone have captured our young people and they literally have the world at their fingertips. And that is not a bad thing.
I use it too. I recently had an older man ask me a question and I whipped out my phone and went to looking. “That’s right, use your brain,” he said and smiled.
I hope our school leaders recognize how critical reading is to the future of every child that grows up in Clarksdale.
My business is built on people who can read and ponder how news and events influence their lives.
There is not a doubt in my mind that if we can teach kids to read, and read, carefully, we’ll stop skimming headlines about murders in Clarksdale.
Floyd Ingram is the Editor of your Clarksdale Press Register. Skim it, read it and ponder it, then give Floyd a call at 662-627-2201.
