In Praise of Tib

In some of her writing notes Maud Hart Lovelace discusses the way her friend Midge Gerlach - the inspiration for Tib - saw Maud and their other friend Bick Kenney (Tacy). "She appreciated us. She admires us. She realized how wonderful we were." And rereading BETSY TACY AND TIB, I appreciate anew how wonderful Tib is.

[Here are those notes from the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota.]

The reasons I love Tib are many - first of all, she is fearless. Even when she knows there will be consequences, she errs on the side of adventure. When the girls are considering mussing themselves up to go begging, Tib mentions that her mother won't like that. But Betsy realizes, "She meant that her mother wouldn't like her to muss up her dress. She didn't mean she wouldn't do it." [p.9] You do NOT want to play chicken with Tib Mueller, for you will surely lose.

It can take Tib awhile to catch on. When there is a street fair in town, Tib's mom takes them to see the Flying Lady. Mrs. Mueller is taking her sweet-ass time getting them into the tent for the show. The barker is freaking Betsy out with is talk of the show being about to start, but she knows she shouldn't nag. She mentions it once and then shortly thereafter when she can take it not one second longer, she nudges Tib to get her to nag her mom. But Tib is a little slow on the uptake - "What do you want, Betsy? What are you poking me for?" [p.31] But not to worry, Mrs. Mueller is no dummy and she lets them go into the tent where they wait another age and a half for what seems to be a really dull show. But it was the height of special effects for the time. 

My favorite bit of early Tib-ness is in the Learning to Fly chapter. After Tib risks life and limb to learn to fly and Betsy shirks at the end and tells a story designed to get her out of the tree without having to risk almost certain danger, Tib tells Betsy, "I know a joke on you." [p.27] And points out that Betsy got so caught up in her story that she never jumped from the tree. Oh, poor, slow Tib. But she finds it a hoot. Instead of owning it, Betsy looks to Tacy to change the subject, "but Tacy was looking the other way. She was looking the other way hard." This cracks me up every single time. 

Sometimes I feel a little sad for Tib that Betsy and Tacy clearly have this wordless shorthand from such a young age. But Tib seems happy just to be included. Of course, Tacy is understanding about the trip to Milwaukee in BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF. And in BETSY WAS A JUNIOR, when Tib moves back to Deep Valley, she and Betsy bond over their boy-crazy-ness in a way that may have made Tacy feel a bit put out. It makes me wonder if Tacy and Tib every got together without Betsy and what that must have been like. Of course, since we are reading from Betsy's perspective, we don't really know. I smell a fanfic opportunity!

Below is a letter that Midge wrote to Maud after having read BETSY TACY for the first time. It shows such Tib-like appreciation. I am heartbroken that I didn't seem to take a picture of page 3. Someday I will go back and look for it. But for now, let's just pretend it talks about the weather. 

I had every good intention of transcribing this, but I am too lazy right now. If you click on the thumbnail, it will open bigger in a window. The Joan who is mentioned is Tib's niece - daughter of Dorothy, Midge's younger sister who was not represented in the books.  (She is referred to as Dolly in Sharla Scannell Whalen's BETSY -TACY COMPANION.) . BETSY TACY AND TIB was dedicated to Midge and Joan.

And in the spirit of the season, I will also put up Midge's Christmas letter. It has to be post-1950 pre-1955 because she references EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY, but mentions the research for BETSY'S WEDDING.

There are some really interesting tidbits here - Midge mentions Maud's wedding, but isn't really clear on when it was so perhaps they weren't as close at that time. Also, the war... And when she talks about the series, she calls it Betsy Tacy & Tib, which I would too! She mentions the hideous Russell McCord (you may know him as Bob Barhydt) and her fear that Maud was going to marry him. There is a bit of heartbreak here when Midge says, "Maybe I should have married Gil and been bored stiff the rest of my life. At least my marriage was exciting and as I could never have any children, my life has been full of action & adventure & I've never been bored." Midge and her husband Charles [Jack Dunhill] separated in the early 1920s and he died in 1929. She never remarried.

To close, I just want to be clear that I am not the Barbara who Midge mentions Maud described as "unusual" in the post script.  But I am thrilled to see my name written in Midge's hand! And I echo her wishes for a Happy New Year to one and all.