SPT - "Just Older"

Lelly's Self Portrait Tuesday challenge for May is as follows..
going back into the vault this month, to an spt challenge i really loved! hope you will join along!!

tuesday, may 5 something old
tuesday, may 12 something new
tuesday, may 19 something borrowed
tuesday, may 26 something blue

Okay so I'm doing a SPW since I missed T. If I haven't all ready, I'm gonna post or speak of this again. This is an OLD 1978 1st edition of Shel Silverstein's, Where the Sidewalk Ends. As you can see its very beaten up and very used, it has finger prints all over it. The corners are bent from being thrown in backpacks and being shoved on the library shelf it sat on for years. Then one day it was put in the retirement bin, even though it still has a tough spine and every one of its yellowing pages. And my thoughtful brother in law Justin bought it for a dollar and gave it to me for Christmas, since he drew my name in the family lottery. It made me cry when I opened it. Many of you could understand why a grubby, beat up, OLD book would make a girl cry, right? Who would want such a thing? Wasn't it an awful present? NO, it was the BEST present!!

So my OLD friend, why do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love that you make me laugh, I love that possibly hundreds of adults and children have handled you and you have shared your joy with them, I love that every time I open you I can imagine all the giggles you set free into the world, I love that you were in a Library available for anyone to enjoy, I love that you were my first favorite book as a child, I love that you bring happiness and fun to my children, I love that you are one of the oldest of your kind.
An OLD poem from my first favorite book...

MELINDA MAE
Have you ever heard of tiny Melinda Mae,
who ate a monstrous whale?
She thought she could,
she said she would,
So she started right at the tail.

And everyone said, "You're much too small,"
but that didn't bother Melinda at all.
She took little bites and chewed very slow,
Just like a good girl should...
...And in eighty nine years she ate that whale
Because she said she would!

How about you? Do you SPT? Do you have a favorite Shel Silverstein poem?

Join my Library Love Book club, pick up 1000 White Women by Jim Fergus from your library.

Just Older by Bon Jovi, Crush 2000