Nancy Drew

[bluefish81]

Originally Posted by carnation

I loved the Bobbseys...I was the third generation in my family to read those too. My favorite Bobbsey books: Goldfish Mystery, In Volcano Land, and At School.

I read Nancy Drew growing up. However, I distinctly remember my mom reading the Bobbsey Twins to me as a girl before bed when I was six or seven. They were her copies from around the 1940s and some of the still had the original jacket covers on them - with the picture of the younger set of twins. I don't think she trusted my young hands with them.

[recentASAalum]

I read through all of the Nancy Drew books at the library. My mom had "The Bungalow Mystery" and that's what started me.

I loved Encyclopedia Brown even more though. He always came up with the most interesting things to solve the cases. To this day, there is still one about a spelling bee/contest that I can recite the clues and how he solved it.

[lake]

At the risk of exposing my hidden nerdiness, two summers ago when I was taking a really hard and boring summer class, I re-read all my old Nancy Drew mysteries during study breaks and as an excuse to procrastinate. But it was awesome!

I always was interested in the Nancy Drew cookbook too, but I don't think they publish that anymore. I suppose I could get that on eBay. Does anyone have that?

[jess_pom]

I love Nancy Drew and attribute my mystery-solving skills to her. Has anyone seen the Nancy Drew movie? I caught it on ABC Family. I also read the adult book about the "real" Nancy Drew.

[BBelleADPi]

I have a huge box of Nancy Drew that my ten year old daughter has started reading for Accelerated Reading (AR) points. I've been amazed at how many things I've had to explain to her, things that are now outdated. ("Radiator" in a house comes to mind right now-you know, just things that are no longer a part of our everyday lives. Same thing when she was reading Ramona books.) I also have a good many of the original Bobbsey Twin books, and I loved them, as well. I just went and looked at copyright dates of some of the Bobbysey Twin books, and one of them was 1927, one 1932, and others in 1940s!
A friend recently gave me about 20 Trixie Belden books w/ dust jackets, but I never read those as a child.
Has anyone ever heard of the Billy Green Hill/Aunt Minerva books? They usually had red covers. They are very old, my grandmother read them to me, butthey would be "politically incorrect" these days, a la "Little Black Sambo." I have added two to my collection in the past ten years, and they were very pricey.

[trojangal]

I had the old series of Nancy Drew books--the yellow hardback, and I had all of them. When we got ready to move to Florida, my sister sold them at our garage sale by mistake..for $1 a book...

I always wondered why the characters were described that way as well. To me, I always thought that George would have been like Jo on Facts of Life.

Do you remember when it was a very short TV series? Uggh!

Read all the Trixie Belden stuff as well..and Encylopedia Brown.

Anyone remember Cherry Ames, Nurse?

[Scandia]

I love Nancy Drew. I have read various incarnations of them.

[FirstAndFinest]

Originally Posted by trojangal

I had the old series of Nancy Drew books--the yellow hardback, and I had all of them. When we got ready to move to Florida, my sister sold them at our garage sale by mistake..for $1 a book...

Anyone remember Cherry Ames, Nurse?

At the risk of showing my age, the yellow books were the new ones when I started reading Nancy Drew. I preferred the hand-me-downs from mom & her sisters - they were blue with jackets. (I think I stopped reading when they came out in paperback.)

I used to *LOVE* reading ND!! My parents would scold me for reading when I should be sleeping - "just one more page, PUHHHHLEEEEEEEEZE!!!!" hehehehe

I remember the hair-color being an older word I didn't understand: "titian"? I do recall that the newer ones had a different word and then the paperbacks used "redhead". (or, that's how I remember it anyway)

I remember Cherry Ames!! The box o' hand-me-downs had some scattered Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden and Cherry Ames! (Gosh, I wonder where those books are. I know they were on a shelf in my room in mom's house when I left for college...)

THANKS FOR BRINGING BACK THOSE MEMORIES!

[carnation]

'Jalopy" and "chums" had me wondering when I read my mother's Nancy Drew books. The Cherry Ames books had a lot of those words too and you know, I never wondered once why she went through so many jobs!

[lake]

I never heard of Donna Parker, Cherry Ames, Billy Green/Aunt Minerva, or the Dana Girls.

Anyone ever read The Boxcar Children? They solved mysteries too, although my favorite was the first book (also titled The Boxcar Children).

I store my Nancy Drew books with my Boxcar Children books.

[alum]

Our library didn't carry Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys etc claiming they were fomulaic and basically the equivalent of "brain-candy". Unfortunately my mother agreed. So I borrowed them from my friends!
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In terms of dated expressions:

When I was quite small, I read a book called B Is For Betsy.

In Chapter 1, Betsy is about to start school for the first time. She is going to first grade (this was written in the pre-nursery school and kindergarten days). The boy next door teases her about the switch in the corner and poor Betsy is quite worried. I could never figure out why a light-switch would be frightening!
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Back to brain-candy, I had the same issues with my daughter reading those Babysitter Club books.

[Drolefille]

See, I was a big reader and I liked the Babysitter club books even though I realized that they were formulaic. I read a ton of other things too, but reading those is nice because they're no brainers.

I still have my fluff fantasy to relax in between the hard science fiction I prefer