I love to read the books I was obsessed with as a young person with my little old lady eyes in the 21st century to see how they hold up. Today's installment is that classic of adolescence by Judy Blume that had quite an impact on me. From shoplifting to looking into the neighbors windows to nocturnal emissions - there was so much to learn here!
First off, the cover of the version I am currently reading pulls no punches. This boy is LOOKING THROUGH THOSE BINOCULARS with SOMETHING ON HIS MIND. What could it be?
It is hard to tell what is the reflection at the bottom of the cover. Could be a nicely stained wood floor, could be some sort of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS bug - your guess is as good as mine.
[Here there be spoilers. If you haven't read this since the mid-80s like me, you can still get one of the 16 copies in the Noblenet system. Or at the evil empire. Or you could order it from your local bookseller because they aren't keeping it on the shelf unless you're talking about someplace HUGE.)
Now to the story. The basic premise is it is early summer and nearly 13 year old Tony Miglione is living in Queens, working a paper route for his spending money and thinking about going to junior high next year (7th grade). He lives with his parents and mute grandmother and his older brother, a teacher, and sister-in-law knocked up earlier in the marriage than they planned, live in the in-law apartment. Because of his impending grandfather-hood, Tony's dad takes one if his inventions to an investor and - just like that - they become upper middle class. Maybe even upper-class, depending on how you define it.
I read this book in the late seventies when I was 11 or 12, it was written in 1971 and from what I have read so far, it holds up. It would surely have the feel of historical fiction to a young reader of today, and for me it takes me right back to Smithtown, Long Island, sitting by the back window, listening to Billy Joel and wondering just what the hell a wet dream is.
Now for the deep dive.
In reading this again, I realize that as a kid I never took in the impact the death of Vinny, Tony's older brother. The loss of Vinny weighs heavy on the story. It was published in 1971, When the Vietnam war was still going on. This loss does a lot to explain why Mrs. Maglione wants to start fresh with all new things when the family moves to Long Island. She is clearly trying to escape from the memories of the old place. I’m interested to see how this plays out in the rest of the story.
Another thing that I completely missed is the discussion of class. It is a story about a family moving on up from being a blue-collar family where the father is electrician (not the lucrative career it is now that there are so many fewer electricians), the mother works in retail, the disabled Grandma is home helping with childcare and cooking and the son has to have a job at 12 to have any spending money.
I also never noticed how caught up Tony is in a fear that the money is not going to last. This is very interesting to me because it shows that he’s been sort of indoctrinated to have fears about money as a member of a family that is just scraping by would at a very young age. I’m also interested in the fact that the brother and sister-in-law were studying to be teachers and how education is shown as a bridge to a better life.
When the Migliones move, the description of the new house is so funny to me. Having grown up on Long Island, I know exactly what that house felt like. My house wasn’t that big with the extra bathrooms but we did have three! We had one upstairs near the kids 'rooms, one attached to the master bedroom and one downstairs for company and emergencies. And yes, many was the time I sat there with the door open so I could see the TV. We were a family without shame. And we were bathroom rich. I have lived for the past 22 years in a one bathroom house And luckily we only have two children both boys who had to be urged to have good hygiene as at a young age. And the rule has always been, when Mama says get out of the bathroom, you have 30 seconds to wrap up whatever you are doing! (And no, you can't see the TV from the bathroom.)
So, the idea of the room having three windows being a big deal stuck out to me.My sister Susan had two windows out front and one to the side that looked into the neighbors house. My room had two windows in the front with a built-in window seat and two windows in the back and a little bit of porch that I could climb out and sit on the roof if I was feeling angst-y. But I didn’t do that very much because it involves climbing which I was far too lazy to do. The number of windows just seemed normal, but now that I think about it, the houses we lived in as we were "moving-on-up" had progressively more windows as my dad climbed the corporate ladder.
For his first rich-boy birthday, Tony gets a new bike- a 10 speed, mother-scratcher! He has such a feeling of freedom now. He learns his way around the town and it’s completely liberating. I did bike some as a kid, but again see laziness above. It was good to ride my bike to the library. That was always one of my very favorite things to do. But I would often try to catch a ride at least downtown, and then walk back later in the afternoon. Tony doesn't seem to walk much.
Nowadays, I don’t see kids riding their bikes much. That could be because we live on a main road. I did a study in graduate school about obesity rates in kids who live on on main roads as opposed to roads that do not have outlets on to main roads. It was a master work. But I digress.
Ooh, the next-door neighbors with a pool, I know it well! The etiquette behind this is very touchy stuff. Both our neighbors had pools. The family on one side had a pool but we were never invited over. But the Jenkins on the other side had a pool and we had an open invitation. This was problematic because Kenny Jenkins had a bunch of gorgeous friends who I had tremendous crushes on so I would have to beautify before I could go over there. It was awkies. I had no game. I used to tell myself that it was because they were late developers, and that’s why I never got to make out with any of them. But the actual truth was, I was awkward as hell in high school. No doubt about it. I made up for it I had some game in college and I'm married now so, well played me...
So Tony finally meets the neighbor kids. Joel, oh Joel, I never saw your underlying issues when I was a kid, but I can clearly see you need a lot of therapy now that I am an adult. Lisa, the perfect princess becomes Tony's obsession from the minute he meets her. Hot older girls are still a thing for middle school boys, I suppose.
The maid was something, huh? No one I knew had a made growing up, except for Saul and Minnie. They also had a pool, and we had an open invitation to swim there. They were loaded! Now that they’re both dead I think it’s OK to say that Saul was my dad‘s sponsor in AA. He was an old man and had a wife that he was deeply in love with whom he fought with constantly and she also was crazy about him, and argued with everything he said. I believe that Saul and Minnie did have an impact on my marriage, Rich and I are very Saul and Minnie. His grandparents also used to fight all the time, and his family said he is just like his granddad. I was born the same day as his grandma and hope that I have some of her fiery spirit.
Anyway, the Richman's had a maid and their pool was an in ground pool. And they had a pool house, we didn’t go into the house because we didn’t want to irritate them. And I think that was for the best. This place was in walking distance and Katie and I used to go over pretty frequently. We would read-walk on the way up and on the way back. My gosh we were nerds. Anyway God bless Saul and Minnie.
The school thing is 100% right. Being the new kid is never as easy as Tony makes it seem making his two new friends on the first day, but it is a big learning curve. I could go on for days about that.
Reading about youth group is a hoot, that was my whole social circle when I was growing up. Where I lived, if you didn’t have kids your age in the neighborhood, you didn’t have a social life. (If you were a big nerd who only wanted to read and didn't want to ride your bike too far.) My sister had a nice group of kids in the neighborhood and was very popular with them, but I was too young. They already had one kid who is two years younger to be their mascot. They were nice to me and that they would invite me to activities like tobogganing, and every once in a while horseback riding. (Okay, my sister had a horse, maybe we were rich.)
It’s great that Tony’s going to get to play basketball and youth group. And that one of his new friends is also in youth group. This girl Corky, I remember her coming up. I was never a fan. I can’t stand skinny girls, Just like Tony.
Oh my gosh, the erections! TAMIW was my first introduction to the human penile erection! Thanks Judy, I can’t believe I forgot why I was so fascinated by this book. I’m going to end here before it gets too graphic and hopefully make my next post more about Tony and less about Barb. Then again maybe I won’t.
