I read Nancy Drew when she drove a roadster, not a convertible. I have no idea what she drives now – a cross over SUV? Today I saw a little Pontiac with only two seats, but I really would like a car with a teeny backseat so a second friend or a dog could come along. I also wanted my hair to be curly, although way back when, it was blonde like Nancy’s . . . but straight.  And I thought Carson was such a cool name for a father.

I started out with the Bobbsey Twin books – Freddie and Flossie and Bert and Nan. F & F were the younger twins. I think I was somewhere between their ages when I started reading. I didn’t think of myself as Flossie, but I liked Freddie, felt safe with him. I had a blond cousin who was much older named Alfred but we all called him Freddie, because everyone except me had know him when he was just a little fellow.

They said when he was a boy he would always come downstairs in the morning with a smile on his face. He died 21 years ago –  lung cancer. We still refer to him as Freddie. I remember he had a Willys and it was yellow and had a canvas top; one time, when I was little, he came from Purdue to pick up my mother and me and take us to Grandma’s.