Nancy Drew -- My Heroine

I know, I should be writing about the debates, which are tonight.

But I thought I would have a little reminiscence about Nancy Drew. I LOVED Nancy Drew as a girl. Between the ages of 9 and 12, I think I read every Nancy Drew book I could get my mitts on.

Now, when I take my son to the library, and I hang out in the kid's section as he runs around playing with puppets and listening to music, I pick out a Nancy Drew mystery and read the first few chapters.

The one I just picked up was "The Bungalow Mystery," which I think is no. 3 in the series. Believe me, I used to know all the mysteries and their order. I believe my very first Nancy Drew was The Spider Sapphire Mystery. Gosh, just the titles of these books get me intrigued -- or nostalgic. Not sure which.

Skimming through the books, I've noticed the descriptions and the characters are both wholesome and pulpy. Everyone is defined by their body type, eye color, and clothing.

I've noticed that "class" is much more obvious in the books: I think perhaps 40-50 years ago when these were written, the fact that there were rich folks, middle folks, and poor folks might have been admitted to. Even though today we are much more divided economically, everyone thinks they are middle class.

There I go, getting into economics when I just wanted to praise Nancy Drew. Read Nancy Drew, girls! And not the newer, cleaned-up versions. Read the old ones. They're not quite so sweet, edited and "PC" as the updated ones, but what girl truly is?