{"id":392,"date":"2015-11-29T12:52:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T12:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/29\/nancydrew\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T17:18:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:18:49","slug":"nancydrew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/29\/nancydrew\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything I Ever Wanted to Know I Learned From Nancy Drew"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"Nancy<\/a><\/div>\n

Did you read Nancy Drew when you were a kid? \u00a0I did, constantly. \u00a0My best friend and I would pass them back and forth and discuss them endlessly. \u00a0I knew they weren’t great literature but oh, they were fun! Nancy and her friends George and Bess were always involved in some huge adventure. \u00a0They would go racing off in Nancy’s blue convertible and save the day, because Nancy always knew what to do and always was able to do it. \u00a0Everyone deferred to her, she had everything. She was pretty and smart, and well-off and again, she had that blue convertible-yes, I wanted it. \u00a0I still kind of do.<\/p>\n

I knew the books were ridiculous. \u00a0I knew no one would ever run into that many adventures and always come out the winner. \u00a0I knew even at the time that the books were pure escapism, but I didn’t care. \u00a0I thought Nancy Drew was wonderful.<\/p>\n

Nancy was strong. \u00a0She was independent. \u00a0She stood up to people and stated her opinion. \u00a0She could fix a car, solve a puzzle, do any sport that was suggested, run a house, I think she could shoot a gun. \u00a0Basically, there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. \u00a0She was also very likable. \u00a0She didn’t gloat when she did all these things. She was modest and humble and respectful. And pretty, let’s not forget pretty.<\/p>\n

Plus she only had an adoring father which basically meant no one telling her what to do. \u00a0There was the dream life right there.<\/p>\n

I think I admired her independence. \u00a0She wasn’t a shrinking violet. \u00a0She went out and did what needed to be done and spoke up for herself and others. \u00a0She was a strong independent woman \u00a0(girl actually, but when I was 10 I thought she was a woman.) \u00a0She didn’t need to be rescued, she did the rescuing. \u00a0What is not to love?<\/p>\n

I think I still want to be Nancy Drew.<\/p>\n

On a related note, did anyone grow up reading The Happy Hollisters<\/em>? \u00a0We had the whole series when I was a child. \u00a0A family of five children who were also always solving mysteries. \u00a0Mrs. Hollister always calmly waved them off to chase the bad guy with only an admonition to not be late for dinner. \u00a0Sometimes they had to leave Sue, the four-year-old, home because she might miss her nap but otherwise, Mrs. Hollister never worried. \u00a0And the children always returned having vanquished the criminal, solved the mystery, and been lauded by all.<\/p>\n

And then there was Trixie Belden<\/em>. \u00a0I loved those too. \u00a0Another group of kids solving mysteries. \u00a0No wonder that when I was small I thought being a detective was a feasible career choice. Practically every book I read had kids running into mysteries at every turn. \u00a0My prosaic life was a sad disappointment.<\/p>\n

I think there was a definite theme to children’s books back then. \u00a0Get rid of the parents and allow the kids to be independent. \u00a0It fits into every kid’s dream.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you read Nancy Drew when you were a kid? \u00a0I did, constantly. \u00a0My best friend and I would pass them back and forth and discuss them endlessly. \u00a0I knew they weren’t great literature but oh, they were fun! Nancy and her friends George and Bess were always involved in some huge adventure. \u00a0They would go racing off in Nancy’s blue convertible and save the day, because Nancy always knew what to do and always was able to do it. \u00a0Everyone deferred to her, she had everything. She was pretty and smart, and well-off and again, she had that blue convertible-yes, I wanted it. \u00a0I still kind of do. I knew the books were ridiculous. \u00a0I knew no one would ever run into that many adventures and always come out the winner. \u00a0I knew even at the time that the books were pure escapism, but I didn’t care. \u00a0I thought Nancy Drew was wonderful. Nancy was strong. \u00a0She was independent. \u00a0She stood up to people and stated her opinion. \u00a0She could fix a car, solve a puzzle, do any sport that was suggested, run a house, I think she could shoot a gun. \u00a0Basically, there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. \u00a0She was also very likable. \u00a0She didn’t gloat when she did all these things. She was modest and humble and respectful. And pretty, let’s not forget pretty. Plus she only had an adoring father which basically meant no one telling her what to do. \u00a0There was the dream life right there. I think I admired her independence. \u00a0She wasn’t a shrinking violet. \u00a0She went out and did what needed to be done and spoke up for herself and others. \u00a0She was a strong independent woman \u00a0(girl actually, but when I was 10 I thought she was a woman.) \u00a0She didn’t need to be rescued, she did the rescuing. \u00a0What is not to love? I think I still want to be Nancy Drew. On a related note, did anyone grow up reading The Happy Hollisters? \u00a0We had the whole series when I was a child. \u00a0A family of five children who were also always solving mysteries. \u00a0Mrs. Hollister always calmly waved them off to chase the bad guy with only an admonition to not be late for dinner. \u00a0Sometimes they had to leave Sue, the four-year-old, home because she might miss her nap but otherwise, Mrs. Hollister never worried. \u00a0And the children always returned having vanquished the criminal, solved the mystery, and been lauded by all. And then there was Trixie Belden. \u00a0I loved those too. \u00a0Another group of kids solving mysteries. \u00a0No wonder that when I was small I thought being a detective was a feasible career choice. Practically every book I read had kids running into mysteries at every turn. \u00a0My prosaic life was a sad disappointment. I think there was a definite theme to children’s books back then. \u00a0Get rid of the parents and allow the kids to be independent. \u00a0It fits into every kid’s dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-childrens-books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}