Bud, Not Buddy Day #14

Again, not too much for today, and the Afterward includes its own pictures.  But I did want to show you again what Bud's newest ax looks like (we've seen this picture before) and what Steady Eddie gives him to take care of it.

 

Finally, remember what Christopher Paul Curtis says at the end of the Afterward.  Don't make the same mistake he did - that when his parents and grandparents woud start telling stories about their past, his eyes would glaze over and he'd think, "Oh, no, not those boring tall tales again!"  Listen.  Learn.  Learning from books and research is good, but learning from someone you love and respect is way better.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #13

There really isn't anything we need to know before reading today.  Just pay close attention to how they know for sure that Herman E. Calloway is who they suspect he is.  Also, think about why Mr. C. is acting the way he is.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #12

First of all, Bud uses his mop and mop water to act out scenes from Twenty Thousand Leaks Under the Sea.  It's actually the following book, originally published in 1869. 

 

The most important part of Chapter 17 is trying to understand the music that Bud is hearing.  Here are two videos.  The first one is a man named Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing a song called It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).

Next is a video featuring Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.  Listening to Ms. Holiday sing will give you an idea of what Miss Thomas may have sounded like.  And the beginning of the video sort of starts with Mr. Armstrong "saying" something with his trumpet and Ms. Holiday answering him.  (I'm not sure why the end gets cut off.)

Bud, Not Buddy Day #11

Here's a picture of the gift Bud receives from Steady Eddie and what's supposed to be inside.

 

Bud also received his first ax, as the band members would call it.

  

Finally, the French word for bone isn't really "la bone."  If the Thug was right, he would have said "bone" transates to "os," or "the bone" translates to "l'os."  So...Sleepy L'os.  Does that sound as good as Sleepy LaBone?

Bud, Not Buddy Day #10

Miss Thomas says "Dark or not, even Blind Lemon Jefferson could see something's wrong with this baby's eye."  Blind Lemon Jefferson was an actual person!  He was one of the most popular blues musicians of the 1920s.  He died in 1929, but any musician active in the 1930s would have known him.  Yes, he was blind, and he was born that way.

Bud continues to mention a tiny seed growing up into a mighty maple tree.  His tiny idea that Herman E. Calloway is his father has grown into something he actually believes with all his heart.  Here's a tiny seed (notice the blades of grass) and the mighty maple tree is could grow into (notice the tire swing):

 

In chapter 15 Bud is introduced to Grand Calloway Station which is named after Grand Central Station.  It is the largest train station in the world and about 125,000 people go through it each day.

Finally, here are the creatures that Bud was worried might come out of the closet doors.  Both Frankenstein and the Wolfman are from popular movies of the time.

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #9

Believe it or not, and I know I was surprised, there is a Log Cabin restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I don't know if it's the same one as in the book, but the real one has been there since 1938.  And just like there was a band in the Log Cabin when Bud got there, the Log Cabin today still has concerts.  From what I could figure out, Bud, Not Buddy takes place in 1936, but maybe Christopher Paul Curtis based the Log Cabin in his book on the one in real life.  Here it is:

Now imagine a Packard like this one parked out front.

Unfortunately, after a lot of searching, I couldn't find a restaurant called The Sweet Pea.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #8

When Bud thinks the cops have caught up with him, he compares them the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  The "Mounties" are the national police force of Canada, and their motto is "Defend the Law."  In the 1930s there was a series of children's books about them, and in the books the Mounties' motto was "They Always Fetch Their Man."

More gangsters from the 1930s.  Machine Gun Kelly and Al Capone.  Here they are:

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #7

Lefty Lewis says that Bud has a head like a peanut.  He says Bud looks like "one of George Washington Carver's experiments sprouted legs and run off."  He then asks Bud if he's from Tuskegee, Alabama.  George Washington Carver was a famous African-American scientist from Tuskegee, Alabama who studies peanuts.  He found hundreds of uses for the peanut plant.  Here's a picture of George Washington Carver in his lab, the peanuts he experimented with, and what Bud might look like ... according to Lefty Lewis.

  

Later, Mrs. Sleet explains that her Mr. Sleet is a redcap for the railroad, while her husband is a Pullman porter.  Redcaps loaded the trains, and Pullman porters took care of passengers on the train.  Here is what a a redcap's red cap looked like and a photo of a Pullman porter.