Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.

By Robert Paul Smith

Book Overview

A hugely popular bestseller when it first appeared in 1957, Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. is Robert Paul Smith's nostalgic and often wry look back on his 1920s childhood. Smith agitates against what he perceives as the over-scheduled and over-supervised lives of suburban children as he celebrates privacy, boredom, and time to oneself away from adults. Arcane games and pastimes including mumbly-peg, horse-chestnut collecting, and Indian scalp burns pervade the book, alongside tales of young love--"I loved the smell of kerosene. Rose smelled of kerosene. I loved Rose."--and hard-won observations by Smith the elder. Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. still conveys the essence of adventure that forms the basis of a fondly recalled childhood.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393339416
• ISBN13: 9780393339413
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful, wonderful book.

This book should never be out of print. A glorious, accurate dipiction of childhood from a boy's perspective. We can all relate. Sweet and innocent: when he talks about smoking "weed," it was real weeds from a back lot! When duct tape was the most valuable thing on the planet and an abandoned lot was a wonderland, it will all come back to you.

charming

What a wonderful little book! Very short, only 124 pages, and I think the best word to describe it is - bemusing. I was charmed by the writer's account of his childhood in the Roaring Twenties. Written in 1957, so many of his observations on parenting (and he had two of his own) are certainly true today. We micro-and macro-manage our children. Are they ever left to their own devices any more? I do remember one of the things he did, running a needle under the skin of my finger. I have a note in my copy that says this book should be given to whichever of my children's children reaches 6 first.

Excellent!

This timeless collection of childhood memories is a classic. It can be read at any age, because everyone, boy or girl, man or woman, can relate to its tellings of childhood memories, dreams, and shenanigans. This is the best book ever written, aside from the Bible.