Category: Children

He trudges with the paper-boy;
The postman is his meat;
He is the milk-man’s shadow;
The neighborhood’s his beat.

Sometimes I think boys’ nearest
Relatives are mules–
They’ll follow almost everything
Excepting home-made rules!

by Ray Romine Wednesday, April 18, 1951

Always he’s beneath our feet ,
When we do not want him.
Until, of course, it’s time to eat-
Then we have to hunt him.

by Ray Romine Monday, August 28, 1950

If the atmosphere’s dignified, staid and sublime,
That is when Junior’s delirious;
But when everyone’s having himself a time,
Where’s there a child more serious?

So we fret and we worry, we stew and we fuss,
And wonder at him–and he wonders at us.

by Ray Romine Sunday, December 17, 1950

Our son reminds me so of me,
I see my faults in Junior-size
Smile back at me in impish glee,
Our son reminds me so of me.
Not faults alone, though, do I see–
Some traits in him I highly prize,
Our son reminds me so of me!

by Ray Romine Tuesday, December 26, 1950

The best books warn in solemn tone:
“O never raise your child alone!”
With television, there’s this to it;
It’s quite a trick if you can do it.

by Ray Romine Thursday, December 14, 1950

Each little girl has a place, you’ll find,
Where she leaves childish things behind,
When toys up attic gather rust,
And comic books play host to dust,
When nylons, lip-rouge, bring on shrieks,
And film-star crushes last for weeks.
But growing up, it seems should be
Pin-pointed more definitely.
It’s easy, too. It stems from when
She calls her teen-age boy-friends MEN!

by Ray Romine Thursday, June 3, 1954

I hope they learn from who’s and why’s,
Like “Why’s the sun–who ‘re Bengal Lancers?”
My children’s daddy really tries,
But those kids get the weirdest answers!

by Ray Romine Sunday, April 5, 1953

Our Sonny’s day was rather bleak;
He wouldn’t smile; he’d scarcely speak.
Our mighty efforts left him cold:
That special story he was told;
The visit of his Uncle Jim
(He’ s always thought the world of him);
The pictures that his mother drew;
What father made with shears and glue-
But he cheered up in time for bed:
Sis just painted his toe-nails red!

by Ray Romine Thursday, August 31, 1950

An inventory would have shown
He had a toy store of his own;
And yet, experience sad relates,
No child is happy without skates.
Anticipating skates hurts much
When one is young and longs for such!

And so, behold our prodigy
Skates in hand, awaiting me.
Now sonny skates–or sonny tries,
While father gets the exercise,
And finds himself anticipating
Son’s initial solo skating….

by Ray Romine Tuesday, January 15, 1952

Ignore part of the mischief
In Junior, if you can:
It may turn sense of humor
To save him, when he’s man.

by Ray Romine Tuesday, November 28, 1950