"So Forcefully Nostalgic Memory About a Book I Read 29 Years Ago"

Wednesday 27, 2016

San Francisco, California

A blast from the past
Have you ever had some random memory from your past? I had it today... It was such a random and so forcefully nostalgic memory about a book I read 29 years ago and I remembered it as if it happened just yesterday.

HA! About a stupid book!

Seriously, SO random.

"The Surprise Kitten"
When I was six or seven years old, in Primary School, we had "reading time hour." The entire class would head to the library room, pick a book and read it quietly on our own.

One day, I picked "The Surprise Kitten," by Josef Palecek... In Spanish it's called "El Gatito NegroBlanco." and apparently, I never forgot it.

The book is about a cool story Pepper, a kitten who finds herself black in a family of all white cats..... anyway, that's it...

After a little bit of digging, I found the book on the internet and I didn't want to forget it, so I am posting it here. Here is the story of Pepper, the surprise kitten:

"The Surprise Kitten" by Josef Palecek ~ pictures by Ed Sand – 1974

A new kitten just appeared in the kitchen one morning. 

She was a little as the littlest kitten in the family, but she didn't look a bit like any of them. Not like mother cat nor father cat, for that matter.

"Who is this stranger?" they all wondered. "What is she doing here?"
 The new kitten's eyes seemed only to ask, "Shall I leave, or can I stay?"

 


Mother cat and her white babies immediately took her in and named her "Pepper." She loved her new name.

When it comes to fun and games, everyone's favorite game was hide and seek, however, they all liked to play it differently.  

Pepper didn't like to play hide and seek in the snow because it was too easy to spot her, instead she preferred to play it in the basement where it was nice and dark. But the white kittens didn't like that it was difficult to spot her in the dark.
 
 
Frustrated by their differences, they all wondered out loud how nice it would be if they were all alike. And suddenly, Pepper had an idea of how to make it so. 

And the rest of the kittens did too!



Pepper run to the kitchen and jumped inside the flour bag. She did it! She was now as white as a ghost. She hurried to show the others how she looked like them now.

But the surprise was for her as well. She didn't find any white kitten on her path, instead, she found they were all black kittens now.

 

What happened you see, is that while pepper run to the kitchen to jump into the flour, the others hurried to the cellar and jumped into the dusty black charcoal. 

They all became black to surprise Pepper by all being the same color as her.

Smiling, Mother cat said to everyone, "...What really counts is that we love each other and try hard to make one another happy."

They all agreed and laughed at the comical situation and started playing with each other euphorically, as little kittens usually do.

Soon they realized that no one was either black or white anymore, since the mixture of flour and charcoal dust made them all look grey...ish.


(The End)



"...What really counts is that we love each other and try hard to make one another happy...  After all, yourself is the best thing to be.."

("The Surprise Kitten" by Josef Palecek ~ pictures by Ed Sand – 1974)