Sue, my mom did that with the orignial blue-with-orange-silhouettes Nancy Drews my great-aunt gave me. I went to some expense to try and replace them, I remembered loving them so.

Then I read a couple of them and was appalled at the casual racism and classism of the originals. Selling them now, I don't want them. I hope the Trixie Beldens are a happier experience.

I don't know where the bulk of the books are -- possibly sold at a long-ago yard sale, possibly still in the parents' attic somewhere. I will say, this quiz book includes a lot of Actual Information, like, the first quiz asks what's included in the Miranda warning!

Re-reading the Trixie Belden's (which I did a several years ago now) I was struck mostly with what a white and privledged world they live in...Trixie is always calling her family poor next to her fabulously wealthy friends, but I am pretty sure they were comfortably middle class--her dad was a bank manager.

Then again, both my grandfather and great-grandfather were bank managers, and we're not rich. (Though allegedly we used to be richer--damn Vichy gov't.)

When Nancy, who was a fifteen year old child, scolded the housekeeper and essentially treated her like an idiot child, I lost all interest in reading more of the books. Yes, white and privileged covers it.

Nancy is much more disturbing than Trixie, I think. It is more that they are always talking about her family as poor, but it is a poor in that they do not have nanny's or horses or new cars for all the kids (just Brian's jalopy that he fixes up). Nancy is sort of casually racist, as are the Bobbsey Twins.

I am at work. I do not want to be. There is no coffee cart because the people who run the coffee cart fired their worker, and the School is annoyed at the people who run the coffee cart! So I am having really bad coffee with powdered creamer

It's a big issue with old children's books which is a real shame because I was getting a nice collection going. I had several Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews from the 40s/50s/60s but got rid of them before mac even came home after reading one of each. There wasn't even the racism mentioned above, but a general out-of-synch-ness with life today that I found jolting and I was pretty sure a new to this culture boy like mac would not understand. For example: the Hardy Boys as very young teenagers head out of town on their own and confront potentially dangerous adult men to start off one of the books.

The racism has come from the more classic "stories for children" collections I had. Arabian Knights was particularly bad, with the evil bad guy in almost every story being a "large negro" or "black genie". I was changing language structure and vocabulary as I read it. We did make it through the whole book, but I have since gotten rid of that volume. We haven't made it through many of the volumes, I should probably check them at some point, but since mac is not a reader there is virtually no chance that he will just pick one up.

Cash, it's called Whip It and it's awesome!

And filmed largely in my town! Woohoo!

I'm ready for a week of school vacation. We have a swimming playdate arranged for Tuesday and we're having friends over for New Year's Eve.

I just need to call and get the kids appointments for their haircuts. And of course, catch up on a million loads of laundry.

I'm ready for a week of school vacation.

And I was just telling another neighborhood parent how I am all ready for school to start back up.

I wish I had taken this week off too. DO not want to go back to work tomorrow.