Happy Birthday Alice

by Frank M. Roberts

August 2015

Altogether now, kiddies: "Happy birthday to you - happy birthday to you - happy birthday, dear Alice - happy birthday to you."

Y'all done good - you were almost in tune. Anyway, it's the fairy tale princess' b'day. The adventurous blonde chick is, this year, 150 years old. Who'd a thunk it? I'd send her a card, but I don't know the zip code for Wonderland.

Made famous by Lewis Carroll and Walt Disney, she has her own exhibit this year. It is at the Morgan Library & Museum - not the one in Suffolk. This one is in a somewhat larger city - NYC.

Daddy Carroll was born in 1832. In 1898 he dropped his pencil and crayons. If you want to find out more, correspondence, notes, etc. are on exhibit at the 'other' Morgan which also has on exhibit - the valuable of valuables. It is the author's original manuscript, plus some drawings and photographs. All of those items were presented by Carroll to little Alice Liddell, 'the child who inspired'.

While Unc Lewis is best known for his little friend's adventures, in some circles he is better known for being akin to a mathematical genius, his ability to speak several languages, and his love of Latin.
He was on a boat ride with little Miss Liddell and two of her family's 11 girls, when he first told Alice's story. The youngster liked it so much, she asked him to write it down so, he took out his computer -- whoops! Just trying to update the tale.

The busy Carroll who, among other things, was an Oxford University professor, first published, "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland," in 1864 - just before Christmas. No dummy, he. Since then, the tale has never been out of print. By the way, it was an instant hit so, if your little ones don't know about Alice's adventures after she dropped into the rabbit hole, now is as good a time as any to tell them all about it, or are they too sophisticated for such wonderment? If so, maybe you can slip in a robot rabbit or zingy zombie for company.

There are, of course, a whole batch of little heroines in literature. Just a few: The lovely Cinderella, kind of an independent chick; Beauty, whose boyfriend was The Beast. There are the little known 'Twelve Dancing Princesses.' They keep company with The Frog Prince. The 'Prince' part is okay, but I have questions about Mr. Froggie; There is Miss Rumpelstiltskin who was anxious to wed so she could have a last name that would be easy to sign; Sleeping Beauty of course - lots of loveliness but too much nap time. And last, but certainly least, there is "The Bride of Frankenstein." I say - to each his own.

Roughly - very roughly - along those same lines, there are the 'brilliant' - er - scientists - Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, and Roo. Fairy tale experts recognize them as characters in A. A. Milne's, "Winnie the Pooh." They had a lot to do with development of the Atom bomb.

Honestly! Italian scientist, Enrico Fermi, was instrumental in developing the instrument of death that helped end World War II. The connection? Glad you asked. Mr. Fermi was working hard to learn the English language, doing so, in large part, by reading the Adventures of Pooh and his friends. They were so helpful, he gave his instruments the above-mentioned names.

When I was in kid-dom, if I wasn't reading, I was chugging away with the li'l choo-choo on my figure-eight track, on which my Lionel electric train went around in circles (just like yours truly). During WWII, electric trains were off the market. The company spent those years building compasses for the war effort.

Speaking of that period - can you believe it? - In 1938, Time Magazine's "Man Of the Year" was Adolph - as in Hitler - as in the male offspring of a female dog. (This is a family publication so we have to skirt around the obvious). Speaking of battles, there is the story of the Arab soldier who deserted his outfit and stood his ground.