The Mason Williams Reading Matter

Summer of '69 Sitting in a home for unwed mothers at seventeen, I borrowed this book from my roommate. When I left, the book came too. She didn't love it enough! The pages came loose from so much use but I didn't care. I got to meet my birth daughter in 1995. So that she would know the state of mind I was in while pregnant with her, I gave her this book. I miss it!

I discovered this book a few years ago when my mother tossed it at me one day in our living room, thinking I might enjoy it. She remembered what everyone does: the comedy. Granted, this is a funny book. I laughed out loud at the essay about deriving maximum enjoyment from crackers. However, what is overlooked too often in this book is his real poetry, especially his love poems. Works such as "Wanderlove" and (my personal favorite) "Saturday's Night at the World" leave me awe-struck every time I read them. In "Saturday's night at the world" Williams says, "Her eyes seemed to answer the echoing silence from yesterday's asking and waiting and listening for something resembling a song to be sung back to me." These words linger inside my head, repeating over and over. I urge lovers of poetry to find this book. It is beautiful, it is humorous, it is touching, bizarre...everything thrown into one collection of poems, scribblings and pictures.

My sons grew up reciting not "Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall," but "Hey, you Moose Goosers, Ain't they clods. 'Sittin' around goosin' those ...." and "How about them Toad Hoppers Ain't they Hogs." Sittin around thumpin' those Green Toadie Frogs" This rare book of '60's poetry and prose can be compared to Dylan's satire in his composition of lyrics set to music. The rhythm of the poetry is appealing to all ages and my children would beg for more and more and more. They would confuse some of the text as did I and the message to them was differenct than it was to me. But who cares? It was the very best reading matter around. But it vanished. Maybe the memory is better. The message to me was descriptive of occupations in our society, and how ridiculous the choices seem to be. A Moosegooser. A Toad Hopper. And the description of each follows. I am still looking for a copy. My ex-husband and I discussed who would receive the one copy we had more than who got the Mercedes!

Okay, the title is a little overdone. Mason Williams wrote comedy for the Smothers Brothers variety show, won a couple of Grammys, created the world's largest sunflower (and then photographed it), and he wrote this book, which contains the funniest essay you will ever read. Remember 9th grade English, when you teacher, Mrs. Thistlebottom, made you read James Thurber's incredibly dry and dull essay "FILL IN DULL ESSAY HERE" and heralded it as the zenith of American written comedy? Did you think that she was wrong? Did you KNOW that she was wrong? If so, then buy this one.