Nancy Drew and the Secret of the 3 Black Robes

[Are_grits_groceries]

There she was, sprawled comfortably on a couch at the Lazy B Ranch, nose deep in a Nancy Drew mystery, when her father summoned. Not now, Dad, little Sandra Day, future Supreme Court justice, pleaded, I’m just getting to the good part. But Dad whisked her off to a remote pasture where a newborn calf, its hindquarters half-eaten by a coyote and further snacked on by the vultures now circling overhead, lay in the grass, bloodied and bawling. Merciful Dad wanted little Sandra to see him shoot it between the eyes.

Yes, well, res ipsa loquitur and all that. Back to the couch and “The Secret of the Old Clock” or “The Clue of the Tapping Heels” or whichever tale her father had pried her from to witness that little life lesson, recounted by Sandra Day O’Connor in “Lazy B,” her memoir of growing up in the Southwest. Although at this point who really needed Nancy Drew, girl sleuth, for a character-building dose of you-go-girl gumption, when the real world so vividly offered plenty of opportunity for it just beyond the front door.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg did, it turns out. As a Brooklyn grade schooler she wanted to be either Nancy Drew or Amelia Earhart. She admired Nancy, she said a few years ago, because “she was adventuresome, daring, and her boyfriend was a much more passive type than she was.” And now it’s Sonia Sotomayor. Once upon a time Sonia put an impoverished Puerto Rican Bronx girl into Nancy Drew’s gumshoe pumps and sassy blue convertible before a diabetes diagnosis steered her to the less physical but still justice-minded Perry Mason.

It doesn’t take a big clue to deduce that there’s something between Supreme Court women and Nancy Drew of River Heights, Somewhere, U.S.A., the teenage star of a wholesome series of detective novels that have been in print in some version — dated and updated — since their inception in 1930.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/weekinreview/31murphy.html?hpw

Wait until Rush and his ilk get a load of this. I can hear him now. "Ban Nancy Drew."

[frazzled]

1. All of us women of a "certain age" grew up reading Nancy Drew

So on one level, it's not that surprising. It was very popular.

And today's girls apparently continue to like Nancy, via the popular video games (proviso: my daughter works for the company that produces the Nancy Drew games, specializing in software for girls and women).

[angstlessk]

2. how very cool for your daughter, I too grew up with Nancy and clicked

thru on the front page here to the Nancy Drew games, and I wanted me some. I even bought me and my grandkids the same Nancy Drew book to have something to e-mail them about when they got their own e-mail addresses. It was fun, but they had very busy lives and it did not last, alas! I may have to revisit that site.

[SoCalDem]

3. Books for kids back then were not what they are today

Male adolescents had "The Hardy Boys"
Females had "Nancy Drew"

That was about IT.

Girls did not read "romance novels" until much later, and most girls who were 11-15 in the 50's & 60's did not have all that much interest in boys, except as bike-riding buddies..

I think I had all of the set and enjoyed reading them..My own boys read the "The Hardy Boys"

It was a different time, to be sure:)

[Hannah Bell]

4. There were romance novels for girls.

e.g. "Sue Barton, Student Nurse" & that ilk. Even "Little Women" can be said to be a kind of romance novel. Granted, romance isn't the sole focus, but it's there.

"This is the story of Sue Barton's first year of training as a probationer and then as a student nurse. Sue, with her red hair and eager spirit, is a very likable person - direct, outspoken, capable of mistakes, capable also of warm attachments and a courageous devotion to the service which she soon loves. With her pals, Kit and Connie, she submits to the discipline and rigorous training which are required of every good hospital nurse....Her femininity has more than a casual effect on Dr. Barry, the ablest of the young interns.

There were also other series fiction for girls, e.g. Trixie Belden.