Today is February 7 and it’s Charles Dickens Day.  Who was Charles Dickens?  Well a writer among other things, but he was the guy who invented Scrooge and the other characters in “The Christmas Story”.

I looked up his biography and he was quite the guy.  He evidently loved school and learning, but at an early age in his life, his father was thrown into prison for owing too much and not being able to pay for his debts.

Back in the early to mid 1800’s they would toss you into jail in what they called “debtors prison” for having too much money lent to you and you could not pay it back.  I don’t think that was the way it was in America at the time, but in England, where he lived that was a common thing.

So, he was forced out of school to help with the finances of his mom and family.  It must have been a very hard time back in those days.  Child labor laws were non-existent and so the young children were forced to do all sorts of dirty, ugly jobs for little pay.  Charles Dickens life was etched by this way of life and so came his stories.  The ugly tyrant boss and the little kids in the streets trying their best to find enough food for the family back in the hovel.  The disabled child, with a limp and a speech impediment, on the verge of pneumonia because of the cold and of course under nourished and near to die.  You get the picture.

And in his books there is always a good ending, so don’t fret too much, just pick up one of his books and read on.

You know, he was only 58 when he died and I suppose back in the mid 1800’s that was considered quite old.

You can see the rough life he lived in his face.  But in his day he was considered a wealthy man with a good job and time to write.

In school I was forced to read one of his novels, “David Copperfield”, I got through it, gave my book report and quickly forgot everything I had read.  Sorry Chuck!  It just wasn’t my sort of read.

He wrote stories that were published in series and they were so interesting that the children who could read, would get a copy of the weekly printing and gather up a crowd of kids and read to them.  They were so interested in hearing the next part that they would do what they could to gather enough money to buy the next printing.  I thought that was quite a remarkable thing for the kids to do.  Gathering up a half cent here and a half cent there.

Well, I have too  many things to do today to curl up with a Charles Dickens book, so this will have to do as my celebration of his day and his life.

Bears Butt

Feb. 7, 2013