30 Day Book Challenge, Day 10

Today’s challenge: a book that reminds you of home.

Going back to childhood here. My family has a definite nautical bent. I grew up on the east end of Long Island. My family goes back to the settlement of the area, and before it became “THE HAMPTONS”, it was small fishing villages. My grandfather was a bay man, who dug clams. My brother worked as a charter boat Captain. When we were kids, we got this book, SAM AND THE JOLLY BLUE, by Betty B. Nissen (Random House, 1968).

It’s a children’s book about a down-on-his-luck fisherman, who has a trouble-making cat. Of course, the cat ends up being good luck, and after the cat tracks blue paint all over the boat, the fisherman paints the boat in those colors, and starts catching tons of fish.

It makes me think of the fishing villages, and the bay, and the ocean. Which, despite me having spent half of my life out here in the Kansas City area, on and off, still is “home” to me.