Tuesday, July 7, 2009

my stuff


Becs, the fashionable lass from Style with Benefits, asked me what the tattoo on my arm was. His name is Uncle Wiggily Longears. Howard R. Garis wrote a series of children's books starring Mr. Longears starting in 1910. My mom used to read me these stories every day. And she didn't half-ass the reading-all the characters had different voices. The voices weren't just my mom's voice in different octaves. No no no. They had accents, some were southern, others were British, and Uncle Wiggily's nurse, Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy, had a very distinctive, gravely voice. To put it mildly, I was a big fan when I was little. Finding copies of the books became a hobby for my mom, dad, and I. Everywhere we went, we always perused the local used book stores for the Uncle Wiggily books. Hence my enduring love of this place.

So when my sister and I went to get tattoos, I figured I'd get Uncle Wiggily. He was always helping people and had great advice for all the other animals in the forest. So, not only is he a good role model, he's a little tribute to my mom. (much to her chagrin)

If you're interested in the stories themselves, check out Project Gutenberg for a few free online copies.

ps. If you're wondering why he has a cane and an empty bottle, it's because Mr. Longears has rheumatism and was on his way to the apothecary in this scene...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aww.. that's such a great story! I plan to get a tattoo in the near future, so I always love hearing the backstory behind them. Thanks for sharing and answering my question!

p.s. Yes, my pics are taken on my apt.'s rooftop deck.. and it does have a great view of LA/Hollywood. :)

Shini said...

I love tattoos with stories like that, and your mother, wow how very considerate and patient to read storybooks with separate voices for each characters! Also, I always thought it's quite awesome to be fixated (?:P) on one book and every bookstore you visit you track down different published versions of it... I imagine how great so many different copies of one book would look, line up on a shelf.

AsianCajuns said...

So cool! I assumed in was Brer Rabbit (living in the South and all), but Uncle Wiggily sounds like a much preferable character to a trickster.

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