Tractor dog?

The latest Amazon order arrived; most of it was for me but, on the strength of Richard's recommendation, I had ordered The Adventures of Taxi Dog for Small Boy. We've already read it four times. He seems to like the meter to the words; I love the pictures. Full, bright, positive pictures of a city full of life, pictures clearly drawn by somebody who lives in and loves cities, who walks to the bakery and shops and the local mom-n-pop and chats with his neighbors on the stoop.

I love cities, when they work well. I think that, on the whole, for the average resident the average European city works better than the average US city, but I harbor a deep love for Chicago and DC and a secret-admirer crush on New York. I treasure my decade in DC and every time I watch a Sex in the City rerun I get a pang for the New York I didn't visit often enough even though it was just a few hours up the tracks.

I hope Small Boy gets the city bug. His grandparents hope he gets the farming bug. That's fair, farming is in their blood and they worked their whole lives to build their farm and hope it stays in the family, and at the moment Small Boy is the only grandchild. And Small Boy sure loves visiting the farm and driving the tractors. At the moment it's pretty hard to compete with REAL. LIVE. TRACTORS.



But I can't help it: I hope Small Boy gets the city bug.