[NOTE: Now I see that the post I apologized about for not sending it with the "NJC" tag didn't even make it to the list this morning! Sorry if you wind up getting this twice. Again, and with some editing:]
What a wonderful thread! When I was growing up, I devoured a series that I'm not sure was sold in stores, but that my family must have purchased in installments (I think my paternal aunt did the honors on behalf of us kids). It was called "The Happy Hollisters," and was written by a "Jerry West," which was really a pseudonym for Andrew E. Svenson, who was himself writing for something called the Edward Startemeyer Syndicate, as I found out today. Whew! At any rate, this was years and years before another book, "The Happy Hooker" by Xaviera Hollander, gave the book series title a whole 'nother connation. ;-) The series featured a family of five children, Pete, Pam, Ricky, Holly, and Sue, who were forever 12, 10, 7, 6, and 4, respectively (they must have had a HELL of a year!!). They had a knack for solving mysteries, and traveled everywhere, to the point that my mother sniffed, "their father owns a *hardware store.* How the *heck* do they get to go to a fraction of those places?" Years later, I might have smiled and said, "the willing suspension of disbelief." The books were chock full of information, however. It was from them that I first learned what an arroyo was, and that you could determine the age of a tree by counting the rings from the center, and the barest essentials of sign language for the deaf and hearing-impaired, and the wonders of Chinatown in New York City, and my first couple of words of Spanish. The books came every other month or so, and, as the oldest child in my family (and, for a time, the only one who could read them), I couldn't wait for the next one to arrive. I also read some of the Nancy Drew books, but just didn't fall in love with them. Same with the Bobsey Twins and the Betsy/Tacy series. One series I absolutely loved, however, was Cherry Ames. Cherry was a registered nurse, and she was smart, single, confident, loved a good mystery, worked in the most interesting of places, *always* had nearly complete control over her work environment (in contrast, I'm afraid, to some real-life RNs I've known since), and NEVER worked mandatory overtime! One book in the series had her breaking up a scam by which a ginseng product was being marketed as medicine, thus, perhaps, anticipating the "nutraceutical" industry by about 50 years, although on a much smaller scale. In another, she experienced with both the crushing poverty and the distinctly different way of life of a small Appalachian town. Maybe, if I were to read any of these books today, I would find them antiquated, or quaint, or not as well-written as I remember, or, despite the fact that I absolutely hate the phrase, "politically incorrect." However, for a child of 8 to 12 or so, they opened up a magical new reality, and that is how I will always remember them. Mary P.
