Guardian angels and Roy Rogers.
Wow, a sweet cover-picture of little boy and a little sister or playmate! She carries a doll, he reaches for a butterfly. As they cross the rivulet, they are in danger of falling off the plank and drowning. So the great deity, who had nothing better to do, sent these two angels down to protect them and not allow them to perish. Or perhaps they were assigned for longer-term protection like bodyguards with wings or Secret Service agents for the president.
Gee, if even one of them had been around in 1958, the boy from my neighborhood would not have drowned in Randall's Pond.
I liked this 1943 booklet on guardian angels when I was a pious little mascalzone a decade later. The booklet was probably purchased for me from a parish church bookrack by my older sister. It cost 15 cents. I also liked Roy Rogers. Note the little green branding mark on the cover. I made it with a Roy Rogers ring I sent away for later.
Bullshit booklets about guardian angels and other nonsense by the then-ubiquitous Daniel A. Lord, S.J. could really fuck up young impressionable minds like mine. Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Roy's golden palomino Trigger, on the other hand, were wholesome influences. Sunday afternoon Roy Rogers Club at the Johnston Theatre was much more rewarding than mass at Saint Rocco's Church across the street earlier in the day. That's why I still like the movies but dislike religion now. On his popular TV show Life is Worth Living Bishop Fulton J. Sheen used to refer to his guardian angel in front of a national audience. I don't know if this made him a very holy man or a credulous fool. He should have addressed Roy Rogers instead. At least he was real. So was Trigger.