Influences: Nancy Drew
I
suppose if you made me dig I'd have to admit I had influences but I resist it. I
think of myself as self-propelled, my parents standing back and letting me go. I was
frighteningly independent. I acted that way, even if I didn't always feel
that way.
Case study: I was about 8, my brother 5, at our
school picnic at the Chain of Rocks amusement park. My parents were going to take us on
the Dodge 'Em cars when suddenly my brother had a friend with him. My parents just assumed
I could handle the Dodge 'Em car by myself and split up between the 2 little boys.
Suddenly I was alone, without a clue how to make the bumper car go. I just sat in the
middle while everyone crashed into me. I don't think I was crying or anything, but the
operator finally ran out among the cars, jumped in and drove me to the side. It was
grotesquely traumatic but I didn't complain because I assumed I should have known how to
drive a bumper car and it was my fault that I didn't. I don't remember any aftermath at
the time but when I talked to my parents years later about it they told me that, yes, they
just assumed I could handle it.
I have always assumed that no one would help me
except myself. Therefore the only influence I'm going to admit to is Nancy
Drew.
My mother gave me my first Nancy Drew book in
the fall of 1956 to provide me with some entertainment while she gave me a Toni home
permanent. I was in the second grade. My mother later admitted that she didn't read Nancy
Drew books till she was in high school, but somehow she knew I was ready at age 8
(probably after the damn bumper car incident!)
Anyway, I was instantly hooked.
Nancy didn't need a mother. She had a couple of gal pals (George and Bess) who tagged along
and admired her tremendously and a boyfriend Ned who stood by in awe. And, at sixteen, she drove her own roadster. More importantly, she was
terribly curious and set out to solve mysteries. This got her into trouble but she always
used her brains to get out of it. I can't recall that she ever needed to be rescued
(unlike the 8-year-old in the Dodge 'Em car).
My parents weren't rich enough to buy me the
whole series — I got one or two every Christmas till maybe sixth or seventh grade
— so I read the same ones over and over again. In fifth grade, I started my own
mystery novel, featuring Jeanne Kirk, also a motherless child, although she had two big
brothers. (The sad outcome of that effort is recorded in the sidebar
of my bio page.)
With my playmates, I always wanted to "play
Nancy Drew," which meant we had to make up mysteries about the empty churches and
vacant lots around the neighborhood. I had much more energy about this than my friends
could sustain. I remembering badgering some cousins of mine one weekend out at my
grandmother's clubhouse. "Let's play Nancy Drew! Come on... I'll be Nancy." The
adjacent woods were full of mysteries. They'd sustain the role-playing for about fifteen
minutes at a stretch, then get distracted. (Much later, in my adulthood, one
of my cousins
was blabbing at a family gathering about how inventive we were playing Nancy Drew when the
kids nowadays just watched television. I had to laugh because of all the arm-twisting I'd
done to get her to play.)
 Nancy came back
during my second year of college. The harsh Chicago winter of '69 was inducing
cabin fever in my dorm. I don't know how it started but suddenly I was Nancy and two of my
buddies were George and Bess. Everybody on the floor suddenly took roles and if they
didn't they were assigned villain names. Everyone seemed to have the language down just
right and one older girl took on the role of author Carolyn Keene and arbitrated when the
storyline required it. We didn't have mysteries so much as pranks, but we stayed in our
roles as well as any modern-day Dungeon & Dragon geek. The camaraderie was delicious.
I loved being Nancy, the motherless child with
the indulgent father and the devoted friends — the perfect role model for a future
leader with no use for authority figures. And my career? No, not a detective, but for
fifteen years a quality assurance specialist who loved sifting through data and tracking
down social workers doing substandard service for kids… certainly worthy of Nancy.
2.11.2000
See also:
Nancy Drew's Father (11.10.04) |