ROOTABAGA STORIES - Fantastic Adventures in Rootabaga Country E-Book

Carl Sandburg

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

ROOTABAGA STORIES were born of Carl Sandburg's imagination and desire to inspire intellectual freedom and curiosity within children's lives. Sandburg creates a world where children's hearts and minds are freed from “normality” and are set free to soar.

The land of Rootabaga is inspired by the magic of the American Midwest. Rootabaga country comes alive with friends with fantastic names and creatures like, Corn Fairies, Broom Can Handle It, Hot Dog the Tiger, and the Wind Blue Boy. In Rootabaga “the first words they speak as soon as they learn to make words shall be their names,” he said. “They shall name themselves.” That's how things go in Rootabaga, Axe me no questions, for Please Gimme don't knows-- here the windows are either open or shut, either upstairs or downstairs, just keep your eyes open and keep breathing, believing, and reading.

They explore farms, trains, sidewalks, and skyscrapers- embrace the unknown and create the impossible.
Potato Face Blind Man, an old minstrel of the Village of Liver-and-Onions, hangs out in front of the local post office telling stories and is the narrative guide in Rootabaga Country. The village of Liver-and-Onions is in Rootabaga Country, and is the silliest, biggest village of Rootabaga land. Potato Face Blind Man sits with his accordion on the corner nearest the post office. With his unseeing eyes, looking out and always searching, he sometimes finds within himself the whole human procession."

The lesson of the Rootabaga books is, never restrict a child’s imagination, for it is from the imaginations of minds, unfettered by the rules and conventions taught in schools that amazing, innovative leaps in technology are made. Gene Roddenberry, who wrote the Star Trek series, also conceived of the hand held, mobile communicator, which we know today as cell, or, mobile phone.

10% of the profit from the sale of this book is donated to charities.
Yesterday's Books for Today's Charities
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KEYWORDS/TAGS: Rootabaga stories, Carl Sandburg, inspire, intellectual freedom,  curiosity, children's stories, children’s books, Rootabaga land, American Midwest, Rootabaga country, fantastic names, fantastic creatures, Broom Can Handle It, Hot Dog the Tiger, Wind Blue Boy, Axe me no questions, Please Gimme, Fantasy stories, create the impossible, Potato Face, Blind Man, old minstrel, Village, Liver-and-Onions, post office, silliest village, village of Rootabaga, accordion, corner, unseeing eyes, lesson, never restrict, child’s imagination, unfettered minds, rules and conventions, innovations, leaps, technology, Spink, Skabootch, Zigzag Railroad, Pigs, Bibs, Circus Clown, Cream Puffs, Rusty Rats, Diamond Rabbit. Gold, Spring, Poker Face, Baboon, Toboggan-to-the-Moon, Dream, Gold Buckskin, Whincher, Blixie Bimber, Power, Jason Squiff, Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens, Popcorn Shoes, Rags Habakuk, Blue Rats, Spot Cash Money, Deep Doom, Dark Doorways, Wedding Procession, Rag Doll, Broom Handle, Hat Ashes, Shovel, Snoo Foo, Jugs, Molasses, Secret Ambitions, Bimbo, Snip, Wind,  Winding, Skyscrapers,  Skyscrapers Child, Dollar Watch, Jack Rabbits, Wooden Indian,  Shaghorn Buffalo, Dear Eyes , White Horse Girl, Blue Wind Boy, Six Girls, Balloons, Gray Man, Horseback, Hagglyhoagly, Guitar, Mittens, Slipper, Moon, Sand Flat Shadows, Corn Fairies, Blue Foxes, Flongboos, Medicine Hat,

Leseprobe

Rootabaga Stories

By

Carl Sandburg

Illustrations And Decorations

By

Maud and Miska Petersham

Originally Published By

Harcourt, Brace And Company, New York

[1922]

Resurrected ByAbela Publishing, London[2020]

Rootabaga Stories

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2020

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London

United Kingdom

2020

ISBN-13: 978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

email

[email protected]

Website

Abela Publishing

Dedication

TO

Spink And Skabootch

Contents

1.

Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the Village of Cream Puffs.

How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country

How They Bring Back the Village of Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows It Away

How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village

2.

Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man

The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold Accordion

How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine Spring Morning

Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger

The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the Potato Face Blind Man

How Gimme the Ax Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad and Who Made It Zigzag

3.

Three Stories About the Gold Buckskin Whincher

The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power of the Gold Buckskin Whincher

The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes

The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two Blue Rats, and the Circus Man Who Came with Spot Cash Money

4.

Four Stories About the Deep Doom of Dark Doorways

The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It

How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo

Three Boys With Jugs of Molasses and Secret Ambitions

How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to His Nose When the Wind Changed

5.

Three Stories About Three Ways the Wind Went Winding

The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to Have a Child

The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack Rabbits

The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn Buffalo

6.

Four Stories About Dear, Dear Eyes

The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy

What Six Girls with Balloons Told the Gray Man on Horseback

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the Guitar with His Mittens On

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon

7.

One Story--"Only the Fire-Born Understand Blue"

Sand Flat Shadows

8.

Two Stories About Corn Fairies, Blue Foxes, Flongboos and Happenings That Happened in the United States and Canada

How to Tell Corn Fairies If You See 'Em

How the Animals Lost Their Tails and Got Them Back Traveling From Philadelphia to Medicine Hat

Full-Page Illustrations

The balloons floated and filled the sky

He opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money

Then the uncles asked her the first question first

They held on to the long curved tails of the rusty rats

“I am sure many people will stop and remember the Potato Face Blind Man”

His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his shoes popcorn

They stepped into the molasses with their bare feet

The monkey took the place of the traffic policeman

So they stood looking

It seemed to him as though the sky came down close to his nose

Away off where the sun was coming up, there were people and animals

There on a high stool in a high tower, on a high hill sits the Head Spotter of the Weather Makers

Rootabaga Stories

1. Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the Village of Cream Puffs

People:Gimme the Ax

Please Gimme

Ax Me No Questions

The Ticket Agent

Wing Tip the Spick

The Four Uncles

The Rat in a Blizzard

The Five Rusty Rats

More People:

Balloon Pickers

Baked Clowns

Polka Dot Pigs

How They Broke Away to Go to theRootabaga Country

Gimme the Ax lived in a house where everything is the same as it always was.

“The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the smoke out,” said Gimme the Ax. “The doorknobs open the doors. The windows are always either open or shut. We are always either upstairs or downstairs in this house. Everything is the same as it always was.”

So he decided to let his children name themselves.

“The first words they speak as soon as they learn to make words shall be their names,” he said. “They shall name themselves.”

When the first boy came to the house of Gimme the Ax, he was named Please Gimme. When the first girl came she was named Ax Me No Questions.

And both of the children had the shadows of valleys by night in their eyes and the lights of early morning, when the sun is coming up, on their foreheads.

And the hair on top of their heads was a dark wild grass. And they loved to turn the doorknobs, open the doors, and run out to have the wind comb their hair and touch their eyes and put its six soft fingers on their foreheads.

And then because no more boys came and no more girls came, Gimme the Ax said to himself, “My first boy is my last and my last girl is my first and they picked their names themselves.”

Please Gimme grew up and his ears got longer. Ax Me No Questions grew up and her ears got longer. And they kept on living in the house where everything is the same as it always was. They learned to say just as their father said, “The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the smoke out, the doorknobs open the doors, the windows are always either open or shut, we are always either upstairs or downstairs—everything is the same as it always was.”

After a while they began asking each other in the cool of the evening after they had eggs for breakfast in the morning, “Who’s who? How much? And what’s the answer?”

“It is too much to be too long anywhere,” said the tough old man, Gimme the Ax.

And Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions, the tough son and the tough daughter of Gimme the Ax, answered their father, “It is too much to be too long anywhere.”

So they sold everything they had, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, everything except their ragbags and a few extras.

When their neighbors saw them selling everything they had, the different neighbors said, “They are going to Kansas, to Kokomo, to Canada, to Kankakee, to Kalamazoo, to Kamchatka, to the Chattahoochee.”

One little sniffer with his eyes half shut and a mitten on his nose, laughed in his hat five ways and said, “They are going to the moon and when they get there they will find everything is the same as it always was.”

All the spot cash money he got for selling everything, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, Gimme the Ax put in a ragbag and slung on his back like a rag picker going home.

Then he took Please Gimme, his oldest and youngest and only son, and Ax Me No Questions, his oldest and youngest and only daughter, and went to the railroad station.

The ticket agent was sitting at the window selling railroad tickets the same as always.

He opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money

“Do you wish a ticket to go away and come back or do you wish a ticket to go away and never come back?” the ticket agent asked wiping sleep out of his eyes.

“We wish a ticket to ride where the railroad tracks run off into the sky and never come back—send us far as the railroad rails go and then forty ways farther yet,” was the reply of Gimme the Ax.

“So far? So early? So soon?” asked the ticket agent wiping more sleep out his eyes. “Then I will give you a new ticket. It blew in. It is a long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it.”

Gimme the Ax thanked the ticket agent once, thanked the ticket agent twice, and then instead of thanking the ticket agent three times he opened the ragbag and took out all the spot cash money he got for selling everything, pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks, and paid the spot cash money to the ticket agent.

Before he put it in his pocket he looked once, twice, three times at the long yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it.

Then with Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions he got on the railroad train, showed the conductor his ticket and they started to ride to where the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky and then forty ways farther yet.

The train ran on and on. It came to the place where the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky. And it ran on and on chick chick-a-chick chick-a-chick chick-a-chick.

Sometimes the engineer hooted and tooted the whistle. Sometimes the fireman rang the bell. Sometimes the open-and-shut of the steam hog’s nose choked and spit pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost, pfisty-pfoost. But no matter what happened to the whistle and the bell and the steam hog, the train ran on and on to where the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky. And then it ran on and on more and more.

Sometimes Gimme the Ax looked in his pocket, put his fingers in and took out the long slick yellow leather slab ticket with a blue spanch across it.

“Not even the Kings of Egypt with all their climbing camels, and all their speedy, spotted, lucky lizards, ever had a ride like this,” he said to his children.

Then something happened. They met another train running on the same track. One train was going one way. The other was going the other way. They met. They passed each other.

“What was it—what happened?” the children asked their father.

“One train went over, the other train went under,” he answered. “This is the Over and Under country. Nobody gets out of the way of anybody else. They either go over or under.”