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Why I Still Love Vintage Nancy Drew

Reflections of a Childhood Spent Reading

I clearly remember the first Nancy Drew book that I ever read. It was called The Bungalow Mystery and it was one of those hardback books that was published in the 1960s. It had a beautiful and brightly colored dust jacket cover with a blonde (or titian haired as she was described in the book) Nancy Drew perched and hidden behind a sofa as she watched a mysterious man rummage in a safe. Thirty years later and I still have that book. It might look old, yellowed, and dated but it proudly sits on my shelf today.

I think I was attracted to the cover. I didn't know who Nancy Drew was. No one had any idea who she was. My parents certainly didn't know. You see, I grew up in a country where less than 1% of the population might have known who Nancy Drew was. Children's literature just wasn't at the top of anyone's reading list in those days.

My mom brought me the book from a rummage sale of old and used books that was going on in the school library where she was a teacher. I was 7 years old and she was trying to get me started on a reading habit. My parents wanted me to learn English well. So I read it even though I was initially more attracted to the picture on the cover than the content.

Anyway the story captivated me like no other. I was thrilled with the adventures that Nancy Drew had and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Nancy Drew was the titian-haired sleuth who could be my hero. I loved the way she solved her mysteries and her interaction with her father, Carson Drew, housekeeper Hannah, best friends Bess and George and boyfriend Ned Nickerson. Nancy always managed to get into the most dangerous positions and then extricate herself out of them just as fast. She was everything I hoped to see in a heroine. She was pretty, daring, kind, friendly and almost everyone loved her. I devoured whatever Nancy Drew books I could get my hands on then and there.

It wasn't until I had become older and I had moved to the States that I discovered the many different versions of Nancy Drew. There were the Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew Diaries, Nancy Drew Notebooks, and the Nancy Drew-Hardy Boys combo mysteries. Then there were the more grown-up versions such as River Heights and Nancy Drew on Campus. I haven't even mentioned all the series out there because there are still many more. The truth of the matter was that I tried reading these newer updated series and I ended up hating them all. I just couldn't get into modern Nancy Drew.

I know people say the vintage Nancy Drew books are politically incorrect and that there are vestiges of racism, classism, and anti-semitism written in the older books. However, I honestly never comprehended or felt this was the case when reading the books. Perhaps it was because I was a young girl and I wasn't affected by the cynicism of the world. I was just happy to read something that got me out of the real world and into the fantasy world of solving mysteries and being the pretty and young girl detective that everyone loved.

I may no longer be a young girl but everytime I pick up my vintage Nancy Drew book off the shelf, I am transported back to a more innocent time when I could be blissfully ignorant of the world around me.

Source: https://baos.pub/why-i-still-love-vintage-nancy-drew-e97ccdd07f39

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