It’s kind of a cliché illustration: Dad is sitting in an easy chair reading the sports, and Junior is on the floor, laying on his stomach, propped up on his elbows, reading the funnies. Can anybody comfortably read anything in that position in real life? I tried it once as a little kid, and it was tiring for me, but maybe it’s like sitting cross-legged- I can’t do that either.
I used to do that.
Now, heck no. As a little kid? Yes, it worked. There is a picture of me floating around somewhere when I was 4. I’m looking at the Daily News Sunday comics that way. (No, I wasn’t reading them, I couldn’t read yet.)
I absolutely remember reading “Snoopy Books” (Peanuts collections) in that position when I was in the 6-9 age range.
Yeah, I read the comics in that position as a kid, too. I also watched TV like that.
I used to do it. (My father wasn’t reading the sports, and he wasn’t in an easy chair. He was on the couch, either reading the main news/columnist sections or a book, or having fallen asleep doing so. But otherwise almost exactly like the cliché. In winter, I’d be lying in front of a fire in the fireplace.)
And while I rarely do these days, I actually did again for a while just a few days ago; though I wasn’t reading the comics. My car was being worked on, and I didn’t want to hang out for an extended time in the small waiting room. I found a shady spot outside and read a magazine while sitting on the grass, changing positions from time to time. At some points I lay down, and for a while I was lying on my stomach, propped up on my elbows, reading. This was comfortable for about as long as any of the other positions; these days I get stiff if I stay too long in any one position. I’m 70.
How else is a little kid supposed to read the comics? Could he, with his short little arms, comfortably hold a full-size newspaper section?
It’s amazing how the bodies of little kids can move. Sadly, this ability decreases with age, until you get to be a geezer like me.
That’s how I read the funnies as a kid as well.