From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
Last night we had company for dinner and as it is vacation, I was allowed to come to the table. These people were not relations, but I don’t like them anyhow. Why do people always ask you if you are a good little girl? Mr. Baker asked me that and then he asked me if I went to Sunday school, and I said, “Oh yes, I do because my Grandfather makes me go” and then he asked me what I learned there and I said, “Not much.” He laughed again, and said that I was a wise little girl to know that I didn’t know much but he didn’t tell me why. Then Mrs. Baker asked me to tell them something I had learned in Sunday school, so I told them the story of “Adam and Eve.” I said that…
Adam and Eve had been very stupid, and had eaten an apple that had been given to them by a very dirty old snake and anyone should know better than to eat a dirty old apple, especially from a dirty old snake and so God of course didn’t want such stupid people in the Garden of Eden, so he had them thrown out.
Mr. Baker asked me if our Sunday school teacher taught us that and I said no, but that it must have been like that.
Last weekend I attended an outdoor concert by a favorite singer, Paula West. She sang one of her signature songs — “Snake” — Hilda knew the moral of the story without having heard the song.
Paula West and her trio at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in San Francisco on August 6, 2022.