Art From Real Life
Ten years ago this summer, having just stopped teaching and with an infant at home, I was ready to jump back into writing. I arranged for weekly, two-hour, baby-free dates with myself, and armed with Starbucks coffee, scraps of paper, and a pen, I spent those days poring over journals I’d convinced my mom to gather for me, taking notes and getting a feel for the girls I’d heard about my whole life.
In the 1950s my mother (front row, last on the right) started a girls’ club that grew to fourteen members. They met weekly in a backyard clubhouse, held regular elections, hosted extravagant holiday parties, sold Easter eggs, traded books, collected dues, argued, cried, kept meticulous records, “improved” themselves by pointing out each others’ flaws, donated to charities, sent themselves to summer camp, volunteered their parents to do things that benefitted the group, kicked troublemakers out of meetings, fined talkers, and cemented friendships that, sixty years later, are still going strong.
While the manuscript that came from those summer reading sessions isn’t the story of The Little Nippers, it is most certainly inspired by their strong personalities, conflicts, loyalty, and drive.
The Nippers are turning seventy this year. In a few weeks they’ll be off for another reunion, revisiting their childhoods and sharing the years since then. And I’ll be returning CAN’T BREAK US to agent Michelle, hoping that this round of edits is the charm.
Thanks, ladies, for the rich stories I grew up hearing, for your feisty, intelligent, complicated, entertaining experiences that figured so much into my own childhood, taught me about friendship, and showed me how fun it is to be a kid.
Wow. I can’t even imagine having a friendship that lasted that long. But it was a different time back then.
Best of luck with your edits to Michelle.
What an amazing story! Good luck with your manuscript, Caroline!
How cool is that? Thanks for sharing their story, Caroline. :-)
It’s truly a gift to have life long friends. You’re mother is a smart woman!
They’re fun ladies. I was always envious of their experiences. I mean, who doesn’t want to have an adult-free, successful club?
I would love hearing about these ladies! What a story.
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Wow – that’s amazing! They sound like amazing ladies!!!
Fascinating post, Caroline. What an inspiring group of women. And what a treasure trove those journals must have been!
Oh, man, I love this kind of story! Fingers crossed you sell it very soon! And that picture is PRICELESS!!! What a cute Mom! And you look just like her. :-)
I love old photos like this and what a great story to go with it! Can’t wait to read this one.
Joan, the journals were hilarious. They were very serious about everything. Moms knew not to schedule doctor’s appointments on Nipper days. In one entry, the current president was going to “bawl out” a girl who didn’t have an excuse for missing. The same bawler later volunteered her uncle’s truck — without first asking permission — for a group hayride.
On another week, the secretary keeping the minutes started practicing spelling words in the journal. I loved this so much, I had to include it in the manuscript.
Kimberley, thanks. I think my mom is lovely.
Loves this times 3, Caroline: the photo, the girls club, the journals.
I have a series of letters that were left under a rock out by the well for a secret boyfriend. The author was still in h.s. and lived with her very strict grandmother on a local farm. The bf was out of school and worked at a gas station. Her main concern was finding a way to go to her first drive-in movie w/ bf. I don’t know if they ever made it… to the movies.
When they broke up the girl must have returned his letters and he kept hers, because I found the set of letters (written more like notes passed in school) in the estate papers of the dcd. male. Okay, long story. I’ve tried to incorporate them as written into a story/novel, but haven’t found the right story yet. I hope I do.
Randy, what a find! I love glimpsing into other lives, especially through first-hand documents. I’m a sucker for published journals. I don’t even have to know the person I’m reading about.
Please keep me posted on the future of a possible story. You know, after that Utopia thing.