Daddy Long Legs - Part 4

In other news - I wanted to inform you of another mail-related activity I am involved in. There is a program called Post Crossings, where you can send postcards to strangers all over the world and receive them in exchange. I have been doing it since the beginning of covid times and am becoming more and more invested. If you are curious about it you can take a look here - https://www.postcrossing.com/ - and if you want to hear me talk about it, my friend Alix and I will be giving a virtual talk at the end of the month for our public library. You can get the info for that here - https://beverlypubliclibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/hold-for-postcrossings/

[This is for Sunday 1/17 and goes from page 127-161 of my 1940 G&D copy.]

March 24th. maybe the 25th. - She wins the short story contest, she gets a part in the play and she is going to NYC - could Judy's life be any better?

• Hamlet AND Jervie? SO MUCH FUN!

April 7th. - Judy tells the wonderful tale of her visit to the holy land - New York City.

• Is this Candace Bushnell or Judy?
• New York undermines John Greer Home.
• Judy on the stage? How perfect!
• Julia Pendleton - so nosy, so nosy.
• Nolite te bastardes carborundorum - but gingham. 

April 10th - a brief refusal

• No more charity, thanks. I'm good.

April 11th. - Once again, Judy learns - post in haste repent at leisure.

• Judy is a thousand legged worm.
• DLL doesn't belong to her. Yet.
• Back to wall, fighting the world.
• Childhood = long sullen stretch of revolt. 

May 4th. - Judy waxes philosophical on the nature of victory, the trouble with orphan-hood, the wonder of imagination and her favorite make-believe.

• Patricia is a perfectly normal name!
• Jervie's no Pendleton. DLL's no trustee.
• Only 60 years past Jane Eyre!
• JHG is no Lowell Institute, exactly.
• The Tale of the Burned Woodshed
• Imagination is the most necessary quality. 
• Adorable tea party. must post selfie.
• Writing to DLL acts as tonic.

Mr. Daddy-Long-Legs Smith. - The study of argumentation is strong in this one!

• Nice outline, it lacks bullet points. 
• Junket for dessert? No thank you.

June 2d. - Judy drops a summer bomb-shell. 

• The McBrides have opened their home.

June 5th. - Perhaps DLL should have come clean about his identity here. 

• What? No McBrides? Why DLL? Why?
• [Maybe don't mention Jimmie so much...]

June 9th. - When Judy's pissed, she doesn't give ANY extra words. 

• In compliance with instructions - Lock Willow. 

LOCK WILLOW FARM. August Third. - Judy doesn't apologize, she explains. 

• "It's the impersonality of your commands."
• "Arbitrary peremptory, unreasonable, omnipotent, invisible Providence"

August 10th. - Judy regales Daddy Long Legs with farm news instead of writing a story.

• That dreadful heroine, refusing to behave!
• Judy can't make DLL behave either. 
• We don't care for religious innovation. 
• Judy vows she'll see the world. 
• Another selfie, she's so danged cute!
• Friday. - There's going to be a special surprise guest! Can you guess who it could possibly be?
• Mrs. Dowd's cleanliness trumps her perfidy. 
• Hats were important before sunscreen. 
• Says Judy, "Don't fence me in."

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Would you rather be in a play or go see a play? Why? And do you have any examples of wonderful times you have done either of those things? [I have too many backstage stories to tell and I need get this posted, but I will just say I'm a sucker for the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd.]

Do you remember your first overnight trip to a big city without a parent or guardian? Did you nearly die from the joy of it? [Yes! Being a young woman alone in a big city is just delicious! Doesn't matter which city although NYC is the one that always felt the most magical to me.]

Judy is alone in the world, for a young woman of this time that would be terrifying. In Anne with an E this was very evident in the way they presented Anne. Can anyone recommend books about girls in this situation? [I adored THE HIRED GIRL by fellow Maud fan Laura Amy Schlit! It's one of the best things I've ever read. I reviewed it here if you'd like a bigger picture.]

Judy's field day sounded fun - mine were always awful and filled with sports. Okay sporty girls - identify yourselves. Who enjoys this kind of activity? [I am singularly not sporty, but I do like to lift weights and sit in hot tubs. And I hike, but VERY slowly...]

I have never read JANE EYRE . Shocking, isn't it? I've not read WUTHERING HEIGHTS either, but I've seen the movie. I have read synopses and may have pretended to have read one or the other of those, or not corrected people when they assumed I had. What is the book you know you should have read, but just haven't, even though you believe it must be wonderful? [I already answered that, didn't I. And Jen DK has a hilarious, if possibly apocryphal story about outing me to a WORLD FAMOUS AUTHOR about this very topic. I shan't tell it, but if you ever corner her at a party, get her to tell it.]

I ate junket once, I think because of this book. I remember nothing so either it was horrible and I've blocked it out or it was just meh. Any junket eaters out there? What have you eaten because it was in a book that you may have regretted. Or fallen in love with? [Also onion sandwiches, of course. And every kid who ever read THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA has longed for Turkish delight. Unless they have ever had Turkish delight.]

So there are a couple of points in this section where DLL crosses the line. At which point should he (or his alter-ego who we shall not name in case there is someone reading this who has never read a book before and can't see the inevitable coming) have just come clean? [So hard to say because then the book would end and no big twist ending.]

That's it for me - more Tuesday!