a dream realized (part 2)
So last week, I told you how much I loved to read as a kid, & how Madame Mommy Dearest would bring Nancy Drew books home for me from her junior high library when I was in only 3rd or 4th grade when my school librarian refused to let me check them out of her library on my own. (I even remember which Nancy Drew book I desperately wanted to check out that day…Mystery of Crocodile Island.)
From that point on, I desperately wanted to own the entire Nancy Drew collection. I couldn’t wait until MMD retired so I could have the collection from her library. (For the record, they were old; really early versions that had been through the wringer. By the time she retired, students weren’t reading Nancy Drew anymore :May37 & she’d already begun weeding/updating the collection, so I knew she would be discarding them & bringing them home to me! :may35 )
Well, she didn’t bring them home to me. Oh, she discarded them from the collection, all right, but she gave them to another teacher for her niece. She claims she didn’t know I wanted them. I say she wasn’t listening very closely. :may8
So ever since then, there’s been a bit of a hole in my heart where my Nancy Drew books should have been. :may38
And then, last week, a miracle occurred! :may223
I walked into a local Goodwill store & an entire shelf was filled with Nancy Drew books. I was so excited, I nearly yipped & did a little dance as I loaded them into my cart. :may14
Oh, I won’t delude myself into believe it’s a complete collection, but there were 43 of them there & I bought every one! They’re in really good shape, too. I expected them to be ex-library copies or previously owned by some kid who felt the need to write her name in every one like I used to do. :may19 But instead, they’re almost perfect. And instead of sharing the exact same binding/cover art the way the ones in MMD‘s library did (seriously, they were all this salmon pink with the exact same picture on the front instead of having different artwork that depicted something from the individual stories :may24 ), they do have different covers that depict something from the storylines.
Weeeeee! I’m so excited! :may3
MMD pooh-poohed me a little, scoffing at my purchase, asking what I needed with those when I was an adult & would never actually read any of them again. But I covered my ears & lalalalalalalaed her. I was too happy to let her bring me down. And really, she should be glad I found these; it erases a tiny bit of childhood resentment I’m sure I was harboring toward her for giving away MY books in the first place. :may23
Who’s with me? Who used to love Nancy Drew & would have grabbed them all up, too? :mat27
Comments
11 Comments • Comments Feed
Rowan Worth says:
I still have mine! And my Mom’s. And my Dad’s old Hardy Boys books. Have fun with them!! I love reading the old versions, and watching Nancy’s car change over time–from roadster to convertible. :May10
On August 14, 2014 at 1:44 am
Heidi says:
I wish I’d had a set of my own as a kid; I definitely would have kept them & they’d probably be more special than these. But since I didn’t, I’m delighted I found them again. :may22
I was never into the Hardy Boys, tho…not sure why.
On August 14, 2014 at 2:03 pm
Mary Kirkland says:
I never had the books, never read them but I used to watch the Hardy Boys tv show..
On August 14, 2014 at 3:14 am
Heidi says:
Oh, you’d have liked them, Mary! I’d tell you to read them now, but I’m not sure they’d have the same impact on an adult as a kid. :may34
On August 14, 2014 at 2:04 pm
Kathleen O says:
We had the books in our public library and that is where I got reading them.. Such a great find for you.. enjoy them. :may19
On August 14, 2014 at 10:57 am
Heidi says:
There were a couple of duplicates in this set…like I said, I didn’t count or double-check, just grabbed-grabbed-grabbed :may19 …so I’m donating them to a local library that lost its funding. I don’t know if kids today will enjoy them as much as I did, but I’m hopefully someone will “discover” or “re-discover” them. :may21
On August 14, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Barbie Pomales says:
mmm i was more a child of Ann Martins Babysitter’s club( Nerd alert http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Sitters-Club-Kristys-Great-Classic-ebook/dp/B009KVH44A/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1408037227&sr=1-1&keywords=babysitters+club ) I was excited to see it on kindle…..
On August 14, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Heidi says:
I never got into Babysitter’s Club, altho they were everywhere…including in MMD’s library, so I certainly had access to them. Not sure why they didn’t draw me. :may4
On August 15, 2014 at 12:14 am
Laura J. says:
I LOVED ND! But can’t get B’girl to even give them a try. Oh no, she wants all dystopian society type, youth rise up agains the oppressing government stuff (although because she has an extra english class/lit class this year she’s at least getting a chance to read some other classics–and yes, ND is a classic, currently she’s reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn). If she would just TRY one, I know she would love them. I have a whole bunch of them that I received when I was growing up just waiting for her to decide to try them.
On August 14, 2014 at 8:11 pm
Heidi says:
Ugh, depressing. :May37 But each generation seems to find its own set of books to glom. Sometimes the classics come back around, tho. :mat27
Tell her to try the one with the crocodile on the cover. Maybe that will scare her sufficiently :may31
On August 15, 2014 at 12:18 am
Kelly C says:
:may14
:may31
I only read the first 2 or 3 of them. And the 1st one more than once. I always planned to read them. I was lured away by Trixie Belden. :may223
However, depending on the cost, I might have bought those if I had seen them on the Goodwill shelf.
On August 15, 2014 at 10:22 am