Misremembering Herbert
07 12, 11 Filed in: Memory bombs
I was at the library, trying to check a book out for the fourth time, but the librarian wouldn’t let me.
She was nice about it, though. It’s time for some other little girl to read about Herbert, she said. Maybe you’d like this nice book about a tugboat?
Yes, I let her fob me off with a book about a tugboat. But really, what could compare with Herbert the Lion, an adorable creature with a mane like butterscotch pudding?
Sally always wanted a lion cub, so one day her parents gave her one. Sally and Herbert adored each other. All day long they played together, ate every meal together, and at bedtime they curled up together. But of course the lion grew big and strong, and though he kept his friendly disposition, this unusual living arrangement didn’t go down well with tradespeople, friends, relatives… so her parents told Sally that Herbert had to go live in a cage at the zoo.
I recall the saddest picture of Herbert in a cage, crying, with bars separating him from an equally tearful Sally. And for decades, here’s the story I told about this whole episode:
The ending was too sad. When I reached it, I couldn’t bear it; I had to start all over again, when the little girl and her lion cub were happy together.
That’s the story I told because that’s how I remembered it.
For years, that memory haunted me. Then one day in the aughts, I awoke to the possibilities of the Internet and ordered a copy I’d never have to give back to any librarian. When my very own copy of Herbert the Lion arrived, I cracked it open and read it cover to cover for the first time since early childhood.
Like the wise guy says in the movies: never happened.
The picture I so vividly recall does not exist. Midway through the book, there’s a picture of Sally and Herbert crying together at the prospect of their separation, no cage in sight. But then Sally’s mother gets the brilliant notion to send Herbert to their ranch in the mountains instead. (Doesn’t every family have one?) So off he goes and Sally gets a kitten.
What a shock to discover how wrong I’d been! I thought about it a while, then I put it back on the shelf for another couple of decades.
It still haunts me. I just reread it again, and guess what? I got the ending wrong twice. Just can’t seem to nail down that separation story.
The book has a happy ending! Banished to the ranch, Herbert pines for Sally. Eventually he makes his escape and runs back to town (marauding pastry shops on the way). When he arrives, their reunion is so joyful that Sally’s fond parents decide to move the whole family back to the ranch. Never again will Sally be separated from her beloved Herbert.
The book ends with a beautiful two-page spread of the lion racing over the hills with Sally on his back, hugging his butterscotch mane, both smiling blissfully. The book has a happy ending, for cryin’ out loud. Happy!
Herbert the Lion. Story and pictures by Clare Turlay Newberry.
The pictures are still great. The story’s a bit dated now.
She was nice about it, though. It’s time for some other little girl to read about Herbert, she said. Maybe you’d like this nice book about a tugboat?
Yes, I let her fob me off with a book about a tugboat. But really, what could compare with Herbert the Lion, an adorable creature with a mane like butterscotch pudding?
Sally always wanted a lion cub, so one day her parents gave her one. Sally and Herbert adored each other. All day long they played together, ate every meal together, and at bedtime they curled up together. But of course the lion grew big and strong, and though he kept his friendly disposition, this unusual living arrangement didn’t go down well with tradespeople, friends, relatives… so her parents told Sally that Herbert had to go live in a cage at the zoo.
I recall the saddest picture of Herbert in a cage, crying, with bars separating him from an equally tearful Sally. And for decades, here’s the story I told about this whole episode:
The ending was too sad. When I reached it, I couldn’t bear it; I had to start all over again, when the little girl and her lion cub were happy together.
That’s the story I told because that’s how I remembered it.
For years, that memory haunted me. Then one day in the aughts, I awoke to the possibilities of the Internet and ordered a copy I’d never have to give back to any librarian. When my very own copy of Herbert the Lion arrived, I cracked it open and read it cover to cover for the first time since early childhood.
Like the wise guy says in the movies: never happened.
The picture I so vividly recall does not exist. Midway through the book, there’s a picture of Sally and Herbert crying together at the prospect of their separation, no cage in sight. But then Sally’s mother gets the brilliant notion to send Herbert to their ranch in the mountains instead. (Doesn’t every family have one?) So off he goes and Sally gets a kitten.
What a shock to discover how wrong I’d been! I thought about it a while, then I put it back on the shelf for another couple of decades.
It still haunts me. I just reread it again, and guess what? I got the ending wrong twice. Just can’t seem to nail down that separation story.
The book has a happy ending! Banished to the ranch, Herbert pines for Sally. Eventually he makes his escape and runs back to town (marauding pastry shops on the way). When he arrives, their reunion is so joyful that Sally’s fond parents decide to move the whole family back to the ranch. Never again will Sally be separated from her beloved Herbert.
The book ends with a beautiful two-page spread of the lion racing over the hills with Sally on his back, hugging his butterscotch mane, both smiling blissfully. The book has a happy ending, for cryin’ out loud. Happy!
Herbert the Lion. Story and pictures by Clare Turlay Newberry.
The pictures are still great. The story’s a bit dated now.