How I first learned about Esperanto

I learned there was such a thing as Esperanto as a child. My mother was big on providing her children with books, and she got me/us a set of Golden Book encyclopedias. Since my younger brother had no interest in books, I claimed the set as mine and read all of the volumes. 

There was a little article on Esperanto. I don't remember much about it, except that it wasn't negative on Esperanto, and that the Esperanto word it gave as an example was 'birdo.' Perhaps I assumed that the rest of Esperanto was like that--- similar to English? 

Anyway, that little article was the beginning of a lifelong interest in Esperanto. In the early years, I had no idea how to get any more information on Esperanto or where to buy an Esperanto dictionary or textbook. In the pre-internet days, if YOUR local bookstore or library didn't carry something, it pretty much didn't exist.

Much later--- after I already had books in Esperanto--- I moved to my father's old hometown of Menominee, Michigan (USA.) In the library there was one very old (1950s) book about Esperanto which combined a textbook, dictionary and a small sample of articles in Esperanto. I kind of wish some of the earlier libraries in my life had books like that!

Memorizing things in Esperanto: 

This week I am memorizing a basic Christian prayer in Esperanto.

In la nomo de l' Patro kaj de l' Filo kaj de l' Sankta Spirito. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

This is good for Esperanto beginners to memorize because it has simple words, and it's very short. It's not like memorizing the Apostles' Creed in Esperanto!  In you are not familiar with de l' --- it is short for 'de la' and is pronounced like 'del.'