Interestingly enough after moving over 650 miles from Eureka, Utah to Lawndale in Southern California, my first teacher at my elementary school was from Minersville, Utah. There were many who were moving to California from all over the USA. The economy was booming with the aircraft industry and recovery after WWII. Job openings, orange trees, and Hollywood stars all made the golden state an attractive place to move, not to mention the climate and their wonderful beaches.
Living in California opened up a new world for me. As a young girl ten years old, I‘d never been to a public library before. Everyday, after my fifth grade class ended, I walked across the street to explore the world of books. Proudly receiving my first library card, in no time at all I started devouring fairy tales. Wow––what an escape…beautiful princesses being rescued by handsome princes then carried away to a castle to live happily ever after. That was my kind of world and helped me envision what my future life as a grownup could be.
Checking out as many books as I could at one time, I carefully carried them home to read each night. Tales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel filled my waking thoughts and blissful dreams. I could hardly wait to grow up and meet my prince but in the meantime I was just a shy skinny new girl living in a suburb of Los Angeles far away from my small mining hometown in the rocky mountains of Utah. Besides, I had little interest in boys at school. Why did fairy tales intrigue me?
Children throughout the centuries have loved fairy tales and folklore with their magical qualities and fascinating characters that include: fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals. What was there not to like about fairy tales? Evil was always overcome and everyone lived happily ever after or so it claimed. Walt Disney was popularizing many of the more familiar fairy tales with full-length films in color that featured memorable songs and lots of action to captivate even the youngest child.
As I think back, children are naturally naïve––unaccustomed to the real world, high on expectations and low on experience––that comes in time. Anything is possible to a child. Thoroughly believing in the reality of the lives of Sleeping Beauty and The Princess and the Frog, I loved happy endings.