Ramona Quimby and the Feline

Ramona Quimby and the Feline

Listen to the rhythm of the falling Rain

The year of fifth grade was the start of many changes for the bulk of us. Our bodies were just starting to change, our personalities were forming themselves. This is despite, of course, being in mandatory government education. So, as one can imagine, this was the first of many strange times. Perhaps, my first foray into nostalgia. Near the end of the day every day, Mrs Wagner would silence us all so that she could read to us before the final bell of the day. I sat, and listened.

One day, things took a turn for the interesting. We had gone through and read the book “Ms Frisby and the Rats of NIMH” as well as watched the film as an end of 6 week reward. The sad and solemn rains of fall in Duluth, MN came down in a gentle torrent. Turning to face us, she opened and started reading the book “Ramona, the Pest”. I sat mystified. The book was about a young girl “Ramona Quimby” and her many misadventures as a kindergärtner. The story had spanned from the first day, to after school (establishing a sort of set or routine to how her days went) until it all climaxed in a grand meltdown. She did in fact, return to Kindergarten.

This was an interesting feeling for me. Knowing that this was my last year of elementary or primary school brought forth a feeling that usually only manifests itself in earlier adults. This feeling was Nostalgia. I wanted to relive kindergarten for some reason. I did so, vicariously through narrative Author Beverly Cleary had written. It was not, however, a feeling I was used to. Given the situation of living in a state run home, strange emotions were one thing I kept quiet about.

The Bravest Pest in the world

The world that beverly cleary had poured her imagination into was a world that very well could have been. It is a world or a facsimile of one that could have existed in the mid 1950s. Idealistic, yes but it seemed then and seems now to have been based on experiences. That’s what makes it so real. So, why was I waxing nostalgic after an era that I never had a part in? I believe that growing up in a sheltered setting like a gropu home can contribute to that as a concept. So, I basked in that world for years to come.

In the year 2002 or thereabout, I was gifted the latest ( and last book) in the series. “Ramona’s world” The storyline of Ramona’s world centered around her further growing up and her adventures in 4^th grade. It all culminates in the end of 4^th grade with Ramona and her “Rival” Susan becoming closer friends and a budding relationship with a new character established earlier on as Danny “Yard-ape”. Listening to “Ralph and Florien” in the back of a car going to Missouri for a week in the summer, it was blissful.

Of course, the staff had read the in-between books to me. My primary councilor’s mum also read some of them to me; these were happy memories. In 2010, A film version of the ideas (Note that I said “Ideas”) behind the books “Ramona’s world” and “Ramona – forever” (and a mishmash which forms a full plot) came out called “Ramona and Beezus”. I had gone to it, I watched it, and I returned home, SINGING.

The works of Ms Cleary and the world/setting she has established stuck with me. This is because of the way they are written, and the relatablity of the characters. Fiction they may be, I feel like Henry Huggins, The Kemps, and the Quimbys could have very well been neightours in some far off universe.

Ramona is the bravest pest in the world, Forever.