April 28, 2023 • 52 mins
In association with God, for granting me the interview of my dreams.
CThaGod World Presents: A conversation with Judy Blume
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hm, my dream interview was happening. How are
(00:56):
you miss JUNI?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I am so good and so happy that after all
this time, we're together.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, every time I get asked, you know, what's
my dream interview, I always say, Julie Bloom.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And I've heard that, and you're gonna have to tell
me about that.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Why Because when I was younger, my mother would always
tell me to read books that don't pertain to me.
And so, you know, I'm a young black man from
the South. So when I would go into the library
and see these books, you know that were about young
white girls, I was like, well, that's the complete opposite
of me. So I started reading them, and that's how
(01:29):
I fell in love with you work.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
That's so great.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Do you do you understand and recognize the impact your
books have had on the generation.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I don't like to think about that. I certainly didn't
when I started out and when I was writing. But
after fifty years and hearing from so many, you know,
people who've read my books and meeting them in the bookstore,
you know, grown women and men come in every day,
and I have learned from the readers that the books
(02:03):
have spoken to them and you know, it's it's hard
to be that person because it's like, I mean, you're
really thrilled, and at the same time it's like, no,
you know, I didn't know what I was doing, so
don't put that on me. But I appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I read once where you said characters lived inside your
head first before you started writing your books.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Do you remember the first time one of those characters
popped in your head?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh? My god, Well I had them in my head
from the time I was nine. Wow, so you know
it was I mean, it made life so much fun
for me. I would bounce the ball a Spalding. Do
you remember pink Spalding? All the bounceaball against the side
of my house, and the whole time an hour two hours.
(02:53):
I was living inside my head with stories and characters.
I mean I never wrote about them. I never told
anybody because if you would tell your friends guess what,
you know, I have these great stories and characters inside
my head, they would think you were crazy. Yeah, right,
so that was mine. That was special. I never told
(03:15):
my parents, I never told anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
When do you first decide to, you know, take these
catches out of your head and put them on paper.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I think probably I was married young, had kids young,
and found myself in the suburbs, bored at least, if
not more than that. I mean, I love taking care
of babies and all of that, but I needed some
(03:45):
creative outlet. All the time I was in school, I
always had a creative outlet something, but now I needed
that again. And I mean it could have been anything.
I was lonely and I needed creative out that and
it could have been anything. But I was home with
little kids. I had access to paper and pencil and
(04:09):
access to something inside my head, and so I just started.
I didn't know anything about it, didn't know anybody who
had ever written.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Wow, did your first character see the light of day?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well? You know, I can't remember. I mean I wrote
a lot of a lot of stories that were stupid,
and you know, I have them in a box and
I've written to my kids on that if you ever
publish these, I will come back and haunt you. So
I mean there was a lot, a lot before I
got to Iggy's house and then to Margaret.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Now, you tap into so many different types of people
with your characters. You know, so many different struggles from racism,
the sexuality, obesity, divorce, Like, how were you able to
do that? Because you couldn't have possibly gone through all
those experiences?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Not there? No, And it's imagination. You know when kids
ask what is it? You know, where do you get
your ideas? I hate that question, but really, where do
you get your ideas? I mean everything you see and
hear and read and stories people tell you. But it's
mostly it's your imagination. And I had a lot of imagination.
(05:20):
My husband tells me, have too much, but you can't
have right now?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
How much of your personal childhood ended up ended up
in these books?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Oh? A lot? I mean starring salar J. Friedman is
my most autobiographical book. So that's a book that brought
me to Miami Beach when I was little. But you know,
parts of me, of course, are in characters and all
but Sheila the Great she has all of my childhood fears,
(05:51):
not all, but a lot. And are you there? God,
it's me Margaret. You know I was a Margaret so
and then you know you think, I mean, how do
you write about a thirteen year old boy after you've
written about a twelve year old girl? Today you might
not even be allowed to because you know, I am
(06:12):
not a thirteen year old boy. What a shame, But
at that time I was allowed to, and so I
was allowed to become in my imagination at thirteen year
old boy.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
You know, I've read that you experienced two years of
rejection before getting your first book published, you know, only
in the Middle of The Green King Garoo.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
What kept you from getting discouraged and just quitting?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, two years is really at that time two years
was nothing. I mean, well, the first rejection sent me
into the closet, you know, close the door, sit on
the floor, cry, and then say that they don't know
what I can really do, and let's see what I
(06:56):
can do. And so I kept going that way, you know.
I mean, I think a lot of success depends on determination.
If you have talent is great, you have to have
some talent to write, But it's the determination that really
makes the difference between somebody who's going to get published
(07:17):
and maybe meet with some success and somebody who may
be just as talented but can't take the rejection. Rejection's hard.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Absolutely, do you remember how you felt when one in
the Middle is the Green Kangaroo was actually published After
all that rejection yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I remember how I felt on the day that they
called me and said we can offer you three hundred
and fifty dollars and we will publish your book. And
it was like I was so happy and elated. You know.
I had little kids, and I went down and they
(07:56):
were playing with silly sand and I took the silly
sound and I threw it up in the air. And
Laurie Murphy went home and told her mother that Larry's
mother has gone crazy. And that's how it felt. You know,
you grew up and it never felt like that again.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Never, even after you sold millions of copies and they're like,
nothing never made you feel like that first time.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't think anything is ever like the first time.
You know, there are a lot of first times in
a fifty year career, but I don't think there's ever
that thrill of the first time somebody is going to
publish my book.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Not my best book, by the way, but still in
print for some reason I don't understand, but it's.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Still you wish you could take some of them out
to print.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm easy on myself when I look at the books
that I've written and I say, well, I remember where
I was here, and I remember where I was there
when I was doing it, And certainly I think, you know,
the real me as a writer started with Margaret, are
you there?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
God is me Margaret?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Because I let go. I let go. I didn't know
what I was doing, but.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I let go.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
You know, you grew up in the time with the
Civil rights movement and always wondered how to watching that
racial injustice influenced Iggy's House.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I grew up before civil rights, you know. I grew
up at a different time, the forties, the fifties. But
I think with Iggy's House, this is not the best,
the best reason to write a book, like like my
character Winnie in the book, Winnie the do Gooder. You know,
(09:45):
I think I was Judy wanting to do good and
that's not the best way to do it. But I
think it was thank you. But I wrote this book,
and not long ago I am. I asked a friend,
a black friend, I said, please read this book again
and tell me if it's racist, because I need to know.
(10:10):
And she read it and she said it's not, And.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Well, people were racist.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So if you're writing a book from a perspective of ohist.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Winnie was not. I mean Whinnie wanted to understand. I
can remember moving to Miami. You know, I was nine
years old and writing home to my father about these
two water fountains and what was it. My father was
a dentist. I figured he would know. Was there a
difference between white people and what was in their mouths
(10:42):
and black people? And my father was a wonderful guy,
and he wrote back and he said, no, you know
we're all saying, but I had a woman actually pulled me.
I was drinking from the ron fountain and she pulled
me away, and what are you doing? What was It
(11:02):
was very disturbing. I had a lot of things in
my life that I could tell you.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
In my high school, I would say when he was
culturally clueless, but you'll be like that if you're not
around people to speak to him and you know, talk
to him and realize what it is that they're going through.
Like That's why I said, I read your books because
there was people that didn't pertain to me.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So you get to pique into other people's lives.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Right, I got better after Yeah. That As a writer,
I think I'm glad I wrote it. But because I
lived in a neighborhood, you know where there was a
lot of racism. It was quiet because you know, by then,
(11:48):
it was when I wrote the book, it was the sixties.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
But I was going to ask it.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I was gonna ask if the systemic racism and prejudice
that when he was withnessying in Eggy's house, did that
come from a personal experience.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Not really, But I mean I knew a lot of
things from growing up. I knew I knew a lot
of stuff, and we were quiet about it. You know,
we had a music teacher. I went to an all
girls public high school in Elizabeth, New Jersey. We had
two high schools, boys and girls, and we all went together.
And we were a very mixed group, mixed religious, mixed racist.
(12:26):
We were everybody who lived in Elizabeth who went to
high school. And in high school, I made friends with
a lot of girls who were a lot of black girls.
I was a dancer. We were in the dance group together,
and you were good friends. And then you know when
you came home from school, when you went to parties
(12:48):
and dances and things, that was you stayed pretty much.
I mean it was the Jewish girls or the Christian girls,
the black girls. We all had our own little thing.
But I we had a chorus, a wonderful chorus, and
we had a music teacher, and there was Violet Johnson
(13:10):
and there wasn't one black girl in chorus. And we
found out that it was because when you went to
try out for course, and believe me, I don't have
a good voice, but I was in chorus. If you
were black, she put a little seat next to your
name for colored and you were never going to be
(13:33):
in chorus. And I knew that. And it was like,
but what do we do about it? Why? I tell
people now you have to speak out? At my fortieth
high school reunion, I hated my high school reunions, but
I went to my fortieth and people stood up and
they were telling all these wonderful stories about being in
(13:55):
high school. And I said, this is what I remember.
And I said, Violet Johnson, you know she's been dead
for a million years. And afterwards some girls came up
and said, we thought you didn't know. We thought none
of you knew, but we did know.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Wow, what did you want people to take from Iggy's
house that can be applied today?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
I want? What do I want? I? You know, I
wrote books to be good stories to be good stories.
But yeah, with Iggy's House, I guess I wanted to
make kids aware. I wanted, you know, that's never a
(14:41):
good reason, I think to write fiction, but I did
want them to be aware and to speak up, and
she could speak up to her family. They were never
going to do anything. Those parents were never going to
do a thing. You know. They weren't going to try
and get the family that moved into the I can't
(15:06):
remember their name who moved into Eagy's house. They were
never going to try to get the family out of there.
They weren't going to do that. But they were never
going to do anything to make it easier or to
help their own daughter deal with this. And I think,
you know, I mean, look, it was, That's how it was.
(15:27):
But I didn't want it to be that way. And
I'm you know, ultimately a lot of people spoke up,
and that's what you have to do. I say the
same thing about band books. If you don't speak up,
they're going to take away the books.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Sure, what what did what did Fudge represent for you?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Budge was you know, Fudge was based on my son
Larry when he was little, and it was pure fun.
It was it was fun writing those books, and I
think kids have fun reading them. I want eating for
kids to be fun. If they don't find out it's
fun from an early age, what do they want to
(16:09):
do it for. So they have to hear stories that
they like and that make them laugh. You know, little
kids you know this, have great senses of humor and
the ridiculous and the you know, they just love it.
It makes them laugh. And so Fudge is silly and funny.
And that's what those books mean to me.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Did you enjoy the Fudge TV show that they made
in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
No, no, I did not. No. But we're talking about
another one now, another Fudge show, and this one will
be animated, and I think it needs to be animated.
I'm making I hope it's good.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Why didn't you like it in the nineties?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Oh? Where do I start? I mean, I just don't
think it was fun. It wasn't what I wanted it
to be. It wasn't as George, my husband calls it,
the d n E. We have to go for the
d n E. That does not embarrass. It didn't embarrass,
but it wasn't what it could have been or should
(17:18):
have been. It's hardy.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
That makes sense when I think about you know, are
you there? God is mean Margaret? And you know how
it was banned a number of times because of the
way it deals with religion and sexuality. It makes me
want to ask you why has this country always wanted
to control, you know, our bodies and who we pray to?
And it was the book of form of protests to
what this country did and continues to do.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
The Puritans. You know, it's I mean, I remember when
I wrote Danie Okay, so I was a DNI. I
don't know what book it was, but with Margaret. You know,
I gave three copies to my children's school library. They
were like in first grade and third When the book
came out, I was so excited and I took three copies,
(18:05):
signed copies down to the library. The male principle would
never put them on the shelf. They never reached the
shelf because he didn't think that elementary school girls should
read about or even know about menstruation, never mind how
many kids at that school probably already had their periods.
(18:26):
You know, I mean, I was so lucky in that
I think, you know, my parents weren't perfect. Who is
perfect as a parent. But they never taught me that
sex was a bad thing or that it was wrong.
I mean, I knew very well, do not get pregnant
(18:49):
while you're in school, you know, don't get pregnant until
you're married, because in those days, pre abortion, that could
change your whole life, and it did for a lot
of kids. I knew, But they never said it was bad.
Nobody ever told me that, and so for me, it
was always good. It was exciting, it was wonderful. Deanie.
(19:11):
Deanie masturbates she enjoys her own sexuality, although she doesn't
know very much about what she's doing. And everyone heard
that word. But I met another principal, a male principle,
and he said to me, I couldn't have that book
on my shelves. It would be different. He said, if
(19:31):
it was about a boy, why why Because girls in
those days and even in days today, are not supposed
to enjoy their own sexuality.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
So the book, the books are formal rebellion against that
formal protest.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It wasn't really it was. I remember writing Deanie, thinking,
you know, I mean, it's not about that, it's about
parental expectations and what that can do to kids. But
I remember thinking, oh, how I wish I had had
a book to read when I was twelve or thirteen
and exploring my own body, and my friends and I
(20:13):
talked about it. You know, do you have that special place?
Can you get that special feeling? We didn't know what
it was, but we knew I was lucky that I
had people I could talk to about that. And I wanted,
I think, to write that in because I knew it
to be true. Maybe not for everybody, but it was
(20:34):
true certainly for me and for my friends, and I
wanted kids to know it was okay, It's normal, normal, normal,
It's fine.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, Deanie is the reason I just don't walk into
my fourteen year old room without knocking.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Every time I tell somebody, are you there, guy, it's me.
Margaret is coming out of the movie. He all say,
it's just coming out of the movie, Like, well, why
do you takes so long to get this turned into a.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Mem I'll tell you why, because for fifty years I
wouldn't sell it. I wouldn't let it go. I was
worried about what they might do to it. And then
I don't know, then I woke up to some of
the really good stuff that was being done. And I
got this fabulous letter from Kelly Freeman Craig and telling
(21:28):
me about how much she wanted to do it and
telling me about her first movie, a movie I had
seen in love and who her mentor was, James L. Brooks,
And it was like, this sounds promising. And they came
to see me, and they made a very persuasive case,
(21:48):
and it was if fudge the nineties Fudge was a
bad experience for me. This was as good as an
experience can be, I think for the writer of a
book to be. So they just made me feel so
welcome and they wanted to hear what I thought, you know,
(22:12):
and it was an inclusive It was just a wonderful,
happy process. And the end the movie could not please
me more. I love the movie.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I love it. They and they kept it set in
the seventies. That was something that I said, you can't,
you can't put this in another era because it's not
going to work. And they kept it in the seventies.
So it's very nostalgic. And I think for my readers
who have now grown up to go and see this,
I think, you know it's going to it's their childhoods.
(22:47):
I think I hope they're going to like it.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Would you ever sell to TV and film rights to
all of your books? You want to keep some of
them just as literature?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Oh no, I'm open. I'm willing yep, and about some
others because I had this great experience.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
You know now, you know you have always fought against
since the ship and the banning of books. Are there
any topics you stayed away from because they were too controversial?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Never? But you know again, go back to that young woman.
I was writing the books, and I didn't know. I
didn't know what I could or couldn't do. Nobody told me.
The seventies was a great time for kids books, for
people who were writing kids books, for the kids who
(23:36):
were reading them. It was a very open time, and
publishers were willing to take chances. I mean, that was
a chance that my publisher took on that I'm not
sure I knew it, but that was a real chance.
And I had the most wonderful editor in the world,
so I was so so lucky. A guy worked with
(23:58):
me on a lot of these books. Wonderful, wonderful person.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Do you think you could write in this era?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
This era of cancel culture and fake outrage and backlash
about every little thing.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Let's just say that I'm glad I wrote when I did,
and that I have a bookstore to keep me very
busy now, and so I'm not. I think the only
way I would be happy writing now is the way
I was when I wrote In The Unlikely Event, which
is historical fiction. Basically, it doesn't feel like it to
me because it took place during my lifetime, but it
(24:33):
did take place in the fifties, and I think that's
the only way I would feel comfortable today. I don't
like to read books where everything is texts and emails,
and I don't I you know, I want something else.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Write about experiences. I like experiences.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, and I like to be in the characters' heads.
I like to know what's going on. I need to
believe them when I'm reading a book. But I'm an
easy I'm an easy person to make believe that this
is happening. I love stories.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Can we talk a little blobber Lover? I like Blover
me too.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
It should be, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It addressed the bullying decades before bullying became like a
hot topic in this country.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
We didn't even call it bullying. I called it. When
people said what is it about, I would say victimization.
In the classroom, we didn't even use the word bully.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It is a teasing Jones and like that was regular.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
You know, it's been banned in some schools and libraries
because of the language.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
And some people even feel like they say they feel
like the bullies prevailed. How do you feel about the
reception to the book.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Oh, it's been a long time. I mean there was
a time when, yes, it was like you know, evil
goes unpunished. But I was trying to be real and
my kids were in that age group riding a school bus,
and I wanted to reflect that school bus culture. And
(26:10):
actually my daughter came home from school and would tell
us at the dinner table about this terrible stuff that
was happening. Wasn't happening to her. But she was like
the quiet child, the observer, like Rochelle I think her
name is in the book, and doesn't do anything, doesn't
know what to do, but sees how terrible this is.
(26:34):
And ultimately, you know, when the kid who is bullied,
Linda gets the chance to become a bully she does.
I mean there's a reality there, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I never looked at it like the bullies prevailed.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I just looked at it like Linda just always wanted
to be accepted and like most kids just want.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
To be accepted.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
And she ended up, you know, getting accepted by the
people who used to bully her. But she didn't care
that she was turned in too the bully. She just
happy to be accepted exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah. Yeah, it has nothing to do really with obesity.
There's nothing to do with that, you know. It's it's
let's see how far we can go, and some people
just let you go. Father and father.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
It's interesting too. But now that I think about it,
it's kind of like.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
A power right, Like everybody always we get mad at
people with power, and then some people get some internal
into exactly what they always hated.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes, it is about power. Sometimes I tell kids it's
about mean girls in fifth grade, and they, oh, I
know about that. It's tough. I mean, being a kid,
it's tough. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Now we know how Ronald Reagan's election impacted the consumption
of your books?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
How did it impact your creativity?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It didn't. I mean, you know, it made me angry,
and I think being angry is good for me. It
was better for creativity than being sad. You know, let's
get out there, let's be angry. I mean, that was
that was such a crazy time. And yet and yet
(28:34):
what we have going on today is even worse, more serious,
more dangerous. And it's going on.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
How the current political climate and like the rise of
Maga influenced your creativity doesn't make you want to, you know,
pick up the pinnigain.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It makes me want to puke. It's just, you know,
I does it? Tell me again? What you said? Does
it have to do?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
It didn't influence your creativity now? Like do you know
you feel like you know you have something to say?
You want to push back on a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
What I have to say, I mean, I would say
out loud, I don't have to write about it. I'm
eighty five next week, you know I don't. It's just
I don't want to write anymore. I don't feel that need.
It used to be a real need, a burning need.
(29:35):
I had to do it. I had to do it,
and I think I did it and I got it out,
and I'm glad that I did it. I sometimes I
look at those books, and I don't really relate, Like
did I really write those books. It's a strange, you know,
it's a strange disconnect. But that doesn't stop me from
(29:58):
being politically furious and disgusted and even frightened for what's
going on today. Frightened that teachers and librarians have been told,
you know, if you have these books in your collections,
(30:19):
we can take you to jail. You're going to be prosecuted,
or people calling them up and saying we're going to
kill you. I mean, it's how about kids who now,
in certain states I just read this, they can't dress
in clothing that doesn't belong to the sex to which
(30:40):
they were born. So I mean, like, can I not
wear pants? I mean, could you not wear a tout?
You know, we have a day here. Many days in
Key West we all have two tooths and we were
two tooths. Why I don't know, because Key West is
(31:00):
a party town. And what days do we wear to
Just Saint Patrick's Day? My husband and I had green
tutooths and we did a little race. And you know,
people will come into the bookstore and toutoths are just
very big. I always wanted to to to. So at
(31:21):
last I have it to to you know, where what
you want?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Can you believe it?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Eighty five all this stuff is still going on, like
nothing is really changed, and you're here in Florida, which
is like the episode of Since the Ship and de
banning of books.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
In America right now.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
You know, we like to think Key West is its
own little country, its own its own island away from Florida,
but we do have the same governor as the rest
of the state. It's shocking. You know. I came to
Miami Beach, well I maybe you know that from starting
Sally J. Friedman. I came to Miami Beach as a
(32:01):
nine year old and so and I fell in love
with what my life was like there because it was
so free and you know, we were free range kids then,
and we played outside until dark and then we knew
it was time to go home. And there was just
something so wonderful about it. And so when I came
to Key West, it was like, oh, look, I ride
(32:23):
the same bike that I used to ride when I
was nine years old, the same you know whatever. We
call it Key West Cruiser with just foot breaks and
the palm fronts at night against the Midnight Blue of
the Sky. It all made me feel ten years old again. Wow,
And so I loved it. And the political climate was
(32:48):
so different. We've been here almost thirty years and things
have changed so much thirty years wow politically, Well, why.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Are it important for you to champion office who are
under attack for the content of their work?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Oh? Always, I've always, you know, we're in this together,
sisters and brothers. I mean, you know who. Whatever work
is attacked, and it's usually work for young people. I
want to be there for as long as I can
be there to defend them.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
You know, technology and social media have exposed like children
is so much at an early age. You think your
books would still be considered taboo if you know, if
they were released.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
In this time.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
You know, I don't well release now who knows because
of things are so crazy. But yes, kids can find information,
they know how to find information. They don't need Margaret
to tell them about periods. So that's different. But it's not.
I never wrote them so much for information. As for emotion,
(34:00):
it's the emotional information that's different. It's about what's going
on inside you.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I think that connects us from generation to generation. I
hope so I feel connected through books to my mother's generation.
You know, she was a big reader. She always encouraged
me to read, and my daughter and I read. That
was a way we could communicate, even when things were
(34:30):
rough between us. We could communicate by handing each other
books to read. So books survey more. They're so much
more than entertainment, but first they have to be entertaining
for kids.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
You have your Judy bloom Forward documentary and are you there?
God is meet Margaret coming out this spring? Are you
bracing yourself for a new wave of criticism potentially our backlash?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
No, okay, I'm bracing myself for all good things.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
At this point.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Do you even care if somebody did have criticisms? Do
you even care to defend yourself at this point and
defend your work?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Probably? Yeah, I mean I don't know that you ever
stopped caring about that. You're my babies, you know.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
You portray the experience of children so vividly, you know,
and even when I see you coming here to day,
it's like you're very childlike, You're dancing, Like how are
you able to stay aligned with the emotions connected to
being a kid growing up?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That's a good question. I mean I identify with kids.
I think, you know, inside I'm partly twelve. I love kids.
I can be four, you know, I can when a
little kid comes in, I'm looking over there because that's
(35:56):
the little kid's section. So when a little kid comes
into the book section, let's say four years old, I mean,
we can make eye contact. I know this seems crazy,
but it's like I know you and you know me.
There's some kind of connection. I think you know a
(36:16):
lot of people have that, and that's just something that's
just a way that you're you're born or that you are,
that you keep your connection with the child that you
were and with children. I'm not that great with teens.
I have to tell you, I'm not that great with teenagers,
(36:39):
but up to twelve, I really love them, and I
really feel for them and un identify with them.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
It comes to your right though. I mean the empathy
that you have in your stories.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
And I always think about that because like, no, you
go to therapy and they have discussions with you about
your inner child, and we tend to not get of
our inner child's grace.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Which you tend to give. You know, a lot of
these kids grace in these books.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I love my inner child. I yeah, I think when
I think about my life, I think the most interesting,
exciting years were up to age twelve, and then at
twelve something happens. You know, you start figuring things out.
(37:30):
My parents are just people, you know, my teachers are
just people. And everything changes. Not everything is new and
exciting anymore. It's you know. So I once was going
to write a memoir my life from one to twelve. Wow,
(37:51):
I didn't do it. I didn't do it, but I
thought about doing that.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Do you remember everything?
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I don't know if it's everything, but I remember a lot, Yes,
a lot in great detail. Yeah. It bothers me when
my friends don't. Sometimes I'm talking to my best friend,
she's still my best friend. We met at twelve, and
she'll say, I can't remember any of that stuff, and
it's like, how can you not remember? That was us?
(38:18):
That was so exciting. But I mean some people do
and some people don't.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Did you have a hard time processing feelings and emotions
as a child and when he was writing did the
did the books help help help with that?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I think the books helped a lot. Yeah. I think
I was. I was. I was an anxious kid. I
had exema, and I was a very fearful child. My
mother was a fearful person. And I slowly came out
of that around like fourth grade. And but I can remember.
(38:55):
I can remember all of that, which is so weird
because you know, I looking back at my writing, I think, Oh,
you were fearless in your writing when you weren't in
your life. You know, you could be fearful in life
and then let it all out be fearless in your work,
(39:18):
which is so strange.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
You think it's because you know, you get older, you
have a better understanding of things.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
You might you don't understand things when you're a cable
and you can look back on it, you have a
better understanding, So it makes you less afraid.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Maybe there are always new things to be afraid.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
I love them.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
But yeah, and my writing, I was never afraid.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
From your first publishing in nineteen sixty nine, like you know,
you consistently publish books until about two thousand and eight.
Then you had like a break before publishing in the
unlikely event like what happened in Oh Wait to twenty fifteen?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
What made you stop writing?
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Oh? When I wrote in the Unlikely Event, I said
to my husband and to the world, this is it.
This is it. First of all, this is the book.
This is how I feel anyway, this is the book
I was meant to write. Okay, this is the book
that was always there, but I never thought about writing it,
telling the story. And I was locked up for five
(40:25):
years doing this book. And I said that's it. I'm done.
I'm done, and nobody believed it, but it was true.
And before that, there were you know, I was always
involved in some creative project. I mean, we may Tigerize
the movie that took up a lot of time, moved houses,
(40:50):
and I loved moving. It was always an excuse not
to write. It was a creative experience, building a new nest.
I didn't have to write. But because writing is hard,
it's hard, you know, it's painful. It can really get
(41:15):
to you. After I stopped and I, you know, we
opened the store. We just kind of fell into our
laps that we were very lucky and people would come
in and say, oh, you look so happy, and I
would think, yeah, because I love what I'm doing and
I don't have to go into that little room by myself.
(41:37):
I have to say, when I was writing, I loved it.
I mean I couldn't wait to get up in the
morning to go and do this and do this, but
you know this. Yeah, but by the end, and I
love doing the research for unlikely event, I loved it,
and I said, I'm never doing another book without research.
(42:00):
But because it gave you, you know, they're the pieces
to the puzzle that I talk about. It gave you
so many pieces to the puzzle that were there for
you to take them and use them as you need
it to. So writing was wonderful. It changed my life.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
That's understated me to change.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Maybe it saved my life. You know, it might have
saved my life. And so I'm always grateful. Two, you know,
the fact that I did it, the people who read
the books, the people who published the books and stood
behind me. I'll always be grateful.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
What is Julie Bloom's favorite Julie Bloom book?
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Oh? No, probably from kids. And I tell them it's
like asking a mother, which one is your favorite child?
You know, some days it's this one, some days it's
that one. But you know, I mean, I I could
tell you stories about all of them, but Margaret, because
it brought me so many readers. Fudge was the first
(43:07):
book really that brought me so many readers. Margaret Tiger
Eyes was so special to me because I think it
helped me deal all these years later with my father's
sudden death. Was just you know, I was twenty one
and he was my everything, and losing him suddenly. I
(43:33):
think I buried that. I got married at the same
time a few weeks later, and I just put all
of that away. My mother couldn't ever talk about grief
or even my father really, and so I think it
all came out in that book. So I think that
(43:54):
was you know, it's emotional writing fiction. It's so emotional,
and if it's not, I think then it's not going
to work. I think if you don't feel it for
your characters, then the people reading your books aren't going
to feel it either.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
What's your least favorite Judy bloombook? Could write over?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, I wish I could write Iggy's House over, and
I think I'd do a much better job today, But
I don't know it would be a different story.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Was great, I mean, I think that's a slept on
Judy Bloom book. It's one of my favorites. What would
you write different about it? How would you approach you difference.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
I became a better writer after I wrote that book.
I am not saying the story, but the writing of
it got you.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
When you decided to be an author, what did you
imagine success to be? And have you surpassed the expectation
that you have yourself.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I never imagined beyond getting published. You know, maybe someday
someone will publish something that I write. That's the first dream, fantasy,
and then the fantasy, you know, grows, maybe someone will
actually read something that I write. Maybe I'll actually hear
(45:17):
from somebody who reads something that I write. But this
level never, never, never, never now, I mean no, it
would have been so crazy, too fantasize. I wouldn't have
even known how to dream about this.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
No, So what did so suggest you was just somebody
reading your book back then and saying something about it
to you?
Speaker 2 (45:44):
That was that was what I could dream about. Yeah,
that was that was a dream that maybe was possible dream. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
And you've consistently said that you wrote books about things
you wanted to know. Was a kid that no one
spoke to you about. Do you think that little Judy
is proud of who you are today and what you've
done for children worldwide?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I don't like to think about what I've done for children,
because what I did I did for me. I mean,
the writing was for me. I wasn't ever thinking about
what I'm doing for them. I don't think that's a
good way to think. Would little Judy like it? Yes?
And who would really love it so much? As my father?
(46:31):
He would be so proud.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Did he encourage you when you was younger? Like did
you did you have even share anything with him?
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Like? Oh? We sang and danced and and did you know,
performed around the house. And he was he was a dentist,
but it was very very talented with his hands. He
could build anything, make anything, and and made me costumes.
I was once the I was once I was the
(46:59):
old old gold girl. You wouldn't remember this, but she
wore a box of cigarette. You know, it was a
cigarette box, and she wore little white boots and she
came on must have been a commercial on TV and
she sang and danced And I once produced a show
in fifth grade. I liked to do shows. I loved
(47:22):
doing shows and doing the commercial break for this show
that I produced. I came out as the old as
the old gold girl in my little white boots, which
were really I didn't have little white boots. They were
white rubber galoshes. But I did my little song and dance.
(47:45):
You know. I like I was a performer, as shy
and quiet as I was early in life. Then I
became the performer and I wanted to be the producer
and the director and the star to do it all.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
Yeah, I have I have four girls, you know, so
I love to hear women talk about their fathers in
this way. So it's just a personal question. What do
I have to continue to do as a father. So
my daughters have the reverence for me like you have
for your father.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Be there for them, encourage them, support them, applaud them.
Because you were four. They're going to go in all
different directions and whatever they do, they should know that
that you love them and you're there for them.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Absolutely absolutely. You know.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
It amazes me that you and Beverly clearly never got
the chance to meet. I don't understand how they never happened.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Oh God, there wasn't. There was a time when I
was ready to take a plane. I was in la
and she lived in the Monterey area, and I was
going to take a plane. It had been arranged. She
was quite a elderly then, but she was willing to
see me, and it never happened. I don't I don't
(49:06):
know why she lived to be more than a hundred one.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Oh, she was such an inspiration to me. I would
fall off the sofa and I laughing hysterically reading her
books and saying, I want to write books like these
that you know that make kids laugh and feel good.
She was great. She was great.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Now you you enjoyed a battle with cancer?
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Oh, yes, but not not a major one. My husband
enjoyed a major one and he's fine. So I had
a little. I had a little breast cancer.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
When that happens, are you are you forced to, like
I guess, face your own mortality a little bit.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I don't think I was then as much as I
am now eighty five. It's like it's coming. We don't
know when, we don't know how. And then you say
to yourself, just live while you can and enjoy everything
(50:16):
while you can.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yes, I was glad.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
You know, are you satisfied with what you have built
and you know what you would potentially be leaving behind?
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Or you feel like you want to do more?
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Like I'm totally satisfied. You know, I think about my
kids now and is there anything I can do, you know,
to make sure that it's easier for them when I'm
not here anymore. It's it's tough. I mean, I think,
(50:54):
you know, losing a parent when your parent is young.
My father was fifty four and I was twenty one,
is very different. It's still losing a parent, and that's
always that's always a huge thing, I think, but it's
so unexpected at that early age, and it's it's more
(51:19):
expected the older you get. I mean, you know, you
know it's going to happen. I mean, my kids are
fifty nine and sixty one, they're grown ups.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Absolutely, Well, when it's all said and done, and you
know you have transitioned, what do you want the legacy
of Julie Bloom to be?
Speaker 2 (51:43):
You know, I never think of legacy. I don't even
know how to think of legacy. What do I want?
She was here, she wrote books that touched her readers,
and she sang and danced and laughed, and it was
(52:07):
it was good.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Thank you, miss Judi. I really appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
I didn't know how to I mean, thank you. I
never thought that this would actually happen. So the fact
that it happened, I just let's me know.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
God is real. Thank you very much, thank.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
You so much. This is so great. You're great at this.
They're wonderful.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
Thank you, thank you.
H m hm, my dream interview was happening. How are
(00:56):
you miss JUNI?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I am so good and so happy that after all
this time, we're together.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, every time I get asked, you know, what's
my dream interview, I always say, Julie Bloom.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And I've heard that, and you're gonna have to tell
me about that.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Why Because when I was younger, my mother would always
tell me to read books that don't pertain to me.
And so, you know, I'm a young black man from
the South. So when I would go into the library
and see these books, you know that were about young
white girls, I was like, well, that's the complete opposite
of me. So I started reading them, and that's how
(01:29):
I fell in love with you work.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
That's so great.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Do you do you understand and recognize the impact your
books have had on the generation.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I don't like to think about that. I certainly didn't
when I started out and when I was writing. But
after fifty years and hearing from so many, you know,
people who've read my books and meeting them in the bookstore,
you know, grown women and men come in every day,
and I have learned from the readers that the books
(02:03):
have spoken to them and you know, it's it's hard
to be that person because it's like, I mean, you're
really thrilled, and at the same time it's like, no,
you know, I didn't know what I was doing, so
don't put that on me. But I appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I read once where you said characters lived inside your
head first before you started writing your books.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Do you remember the first time one of those characters
popped in your head?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh? My god, Well I had them in my head
from the time I was nine. Wow, so you know
it was I mean, it made life so much fun
for me. I would bounce the ball a Spalding. Do
you remember pink Spalding? All the bounceaball against the side
of my house, and the whole time an hour two hours.
(02:53):
I was living inside my head with stories and characters.
I mean I never wrote about them. I never told
anybody because if you would tell your friends guess what,
you know, I have these great stories and characters inside
my head, they would think you were crazy. Yeah, right,
so that was mine. That was special. I never told
(03:15):
my parents, I never told anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
When do you first decide to, you know, take these
catches out of your head and put them on paper.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I think probably I was married young, had kids young,
and found myself in the suburbs, bored at least, if
not more than that. I mean, I love taking care
of babies and all of that, but I needed some
(03:45):
creative outlet. All the time I was in school, I
always had a creative outlet something, but now I needed
that again. And I mean it could have been anything.
I was lonely and I needed creative out that and
it could have been anything. But I was home with
little kids. I had access to paper and pencil and
(04:09):
access to something inside my head, and so I just started.
I didn't know anything about it, didn't know anybody who
had ever written.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Wow, did your first character see the light of day?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well? You know, I can't remember. I mean I wrote
a lot of a lot of stories that were stupid,
and you know, I have them in a box and
I've written to my kids on that if you ever
publish these, I will come back and haunt you. So
I mean there was a lot, a lot before I
got to Iggy's house and then to Margaret.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Now, you tap into so many different types of people
with your characters. You know, so many different struggles from racism,
the sexuality, obesity, divorce, Like, how were you able to
do that? Because you couldn't have possibly gone through all
those experiences?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Not there? No, And it's imagination. You know when kids
ask what is it? You know, where do you get
your ideas? I hate that question, but really, where do
you get your ideas? I mean everything you see and
hear and read and stories people tell you. But it's
mostly it's your imagination. And I had a lot of imagination.
(05:20):
My husband tells me, have too much, but you can't
have right now?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
How much of your personal childhood ended up ended up
in these books?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Oh? A lot? I mean starring salar J. Friedman is
my most autobiographical book. So that's a book that brought
me to Miami Beach when I was little. But you know,
parts of me, of course, are in characters and all
but Sheila the Great she has all of my childhood fears,
(05:51):
not all, but a lot. And are you there? God,
it's me Margaret. You know I was a Margaret so
and then you know you think, I mean, how do
you write about a thirteen year old boy after you've
written about a twelve year old girl? Today you might
not even be allowed to because you know, I am
(06:12):
not a thirteen year old boy. What a shame, But
at that time I was allowed to, and so I
was allowed to become in my imagination at thirteen year
old boy.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
You know, I've read that you experienced two years of
rejection before getting your first book published, you know, only
in the Middle of The Green King Garoo.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
What kept you from getting discouraged and just quitting?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Well, two years is really at that time two years
was nothing. I mean, well, the first rejection sent me
into the closet, you know, close the door, sit on
the floor, cry, and then say that they don't know
what I can really do, and let's see what I
(06:56):
can do. And so I kept going that way, you know.
I mean, I think a lot of success depends on determination.
If you have talent is great, you have to have
some talent to write, But it's the determination that really
makes the difference between somebody who's going to get published
(07:17):
and maybe meet with some success and somebody who may
be just as talented but can't take the rejection. Rejection's hard.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Absolutely, do you remember how you felt when one in
the Middle is the Green Kangaroo was actually published After
all that rejection yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I remember how I felt on the day that they
called me and said we can offer you three hundred
and fifty dollars and we will publish your book. And
it was like I was so happy and elated. You know.
I had little kids, and I went down and they
(07:56):
were playing with silly sand and I took the silly
sound and I threw it up in the air. And
Laurie Murphy went home and told her mother that Larry's
mother has gone crazy. And that's how it felt. You know,
you grew up and it never felt like that again.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Never, even after you sold millions of copies and they're like,
nothing never made you feel like that first time.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't think anything is ever like the first time.
You know, there are a lot of first times in
a fifty year career, but I don't think there's ever
that thrill of the first time somebody is going to
publish my book.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Not my best book, by the way, but still in
print for some reason I don't understand, but it's.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Still you wish you could take some of them out
to print.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm easy on myself when I look at the books
that I've written and I say, well, I remember where
I was here, and I remember where I was there
when I was doing it, And certainly I think, you know,
the real me as a writer started with Margaret, are
you there?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
God is me Margaret?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Because I let go. I let go. I didn't know
what I was doing, but.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I let go.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
You know, you grew up in the time with the
Civil rights movement and always wondered how to watching that
racial injustice influenced Iggy's House.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I grew up before civil rights, you know. I grew
up at a different time, the forties, the fifties. But
I think with Iggy's House, this is not the best,
the best reason to write a book, like like my
character Winnie in the book, Winnie the do Gooder. You know,
(09:45):
I think I was Judy wanting to do good and
that's not the best way to do it. But I
think it was thank you. But I wrote this book,
and not long ago I am. I asked a friend,
a black friend, I said, please read this book again
and tell me if it's racist, because I need to know.
(10:10):
And she read it and she said it's not, And.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Well, people were racist.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
So if you're writing a book from a perspective of ohist.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Winnie was not. I mean Whinnie wanted to understand. I
can remember moving to Miami. You know, I was nine
years old and writing home to my father about these
two water fountains and what was it. My father was
a dentist. I figured he would know. Was there a
difference between white people and what was in their mouths
(10:42):
and black people? And my father was a wonderful guy,
and he wrote back and he said, no, you know
we're all saying, but I had a woman actually pulled me.
I was drinking from the ron fountain and she pulled
me away, and what are you doing? What was It
(11:02):
was very disturbing. I had a lot of things in
my life that I could tell you.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
In my high school, I would say when he was
culturally clueless, but you'll be like that if you're not
around people to speak to him and you know, talk
to him and realize what it is that they're going through.
Like That's why I said, I read your books because
there was people that didn't pertain to me.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So you get to pique into other people's lives.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Right, I got better after Yeah. That As a writer,
I think I'm glad I wrote it. But because I
lived in a neighborhood, you know where there was a
lot of racism. It was quiet because you know, by then,
(11:48):
it was when I wrote the book, it was the sixties.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
But I was going to ask it.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I was gonna ask if the systemic racism and prejudice
that when he was withnessying in Eggy's house, did that
come from a personal experience.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Not really, But I mean I knew a lot of
things from growing up. I knew I knew a lot
of stuff, and we were quiet about it. You know,
we had a music teacher. I went to an all
girls public high school in Elizabeth, New Jersey. We had
two high schools, boys and girls, and we all went together.
And we were a very mixed group, mixed religious, mixed racist.
(12:26):
We were everybody who lived in Elizabeth who went to
high school. And in high school, I made friends with
a lot of girls who were a lot of black girls.
I was a dancer. We were in the dance group together,
and you were good friends. And then you know when
you came home from school, when you went to parties
(12:48):
and dances and things, that was you stayed pretty much.
I mean it was the Jewish girls or the Christian girls,
the black girls. We all had our own little thing.
But I we had a chorus, a wonderful chorus, and
we had a music teacher, and there was Violet Johnson
(13:10):
and there wasn't one black girl in chorus. And we
found out that it was because when you went to
try out for course, and believe me, I don't have
a good voice, but I was in chorus. If you
were black, she put a little seat next to your
name for colored and you were never going to be
(13:33):
in chorus. And I knew that. And it was like,
but what do we do about it? Why? I tell
people now you have to speak out? At my fortieth
high school reunion, I hated my high school reunions, but
I went to my fortieth and people stood up and
they were telling all these wonderful stories about being in
(13:55):
high school. And I said, this is what I remember.
And I said, Violet Johnson, you know she's been dead
for a million years. And afterwards some girls came up
and said, we thought you didn't know. We thought none
of you knew, but we did know.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Wow, what did you want people to take from Iggy's
house that can be applied today?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
I want? What do I want? I? You know, I
wrote books to be good stories to be good stories.
But yeah, with Iggy's House, I guess I wanted to
make kids aware. I wanted, you know, that's never a
(14:41):
good reason, I think to write fiction, but I did
want them to be aware and to speak up, and
she could speak up to her family. They were never
going to do anything. Those parents were never going to
do a thing. You know. They weren't going to try
and get the family that moved into the I can't
(15:06):
remember their name who moved into Eagy's house. They were
never going to try to get the family out of there.
They weren't going to do that. But they were never
going to do anything to make it easier or to
help their own daughter deal with this. And I think,
you know, I mean, look, it was, That's how it was.
(15:27):
But I didn't want it to be that way. And
I'm you know, ultimately a lot of people spoke up,
and that's what you have to do. I say the
same thing about band books. If you don't speak up,
they're going to take away the books.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Sure, what what did what did Fudge represent for you?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Budge was you know, Fudge was based on my son
Larry when he was little, and it was pure fun.
It was it was fun writing those books, and I
think kids have fun reading them. I want eating for
kids to be fun. If they don't find out it's
fun from an early age, what do they want to
(16:09):
do it for. So they have to hear stories that
they like and that make them laugh. You know, little
kids you know this, have great senses of humor and
the ridiculous and the you know, they just love it.
It makes them laugh. And so Fudge is silly and funny.
And that's what those books mean to me.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Did you enjoy the Fudge TV show that they made
in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
No, no, I did not. No. But we're talking about
another one now, another Fudge show, and this one will
be animated, and I think it needs to be animated.
I'm making I hope it's good.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Why didn't you like it in the nineties?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Oh? Where do I start? I mean, I just don't
think it was fun. It wasn't what I wanted it
to be. It wasn't as George, my husband calls it,
the d n E. We have to go for the
d n E. That does not embarrass. It didn't embarrass,
but it wasn't what it could have been or should
(17:18):
have been. It's hardy.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
That makes sense when I think about you know, are
you there? God is mean Margaret? And you know how
it was banned a number of times because of the
way it deals with religion and sexuality. It makes me
want to ask you why has this country always wanted
to control, you know, our bodies and who we pray to?
And it was the book of form of protests to
what this country did and continues to do.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
The Puritans. You know, it's I mean, I remember when
I wrote Danie Okay, so I was a DNI. I
don't know what book it was, but with Margaret. You know,
I gave three copies to my children's school library. They
were like in first grade and third When the book
came out, I was so excited and I took three copies,
(18:05):
signed copies down to the library. The male principle would
never put them on the shelf. They never reached the
shelf because he didn't think that elementary school girls should
read about or even know about menstruation, never mind how
many kids at that school probably already had their periods.
(18:26):
You know, I mean, I was so lucky in that
I think, you know, my parents weren't perfect. Who is
perfect as a parent. But they never taught me that
sex was a bad thing or that it was wrong.
I mean, I knew very well, do not get pregnant
(18:49):
while you're in school, you know, don't get pregnant until
you're married, because in those days, pre abortion, that could
change your whole life, and it did for a lot
of kids. I knew, But they never said it was bad.
Nobody ever told me that, and so for me, it
was always good. It was exciting, it was wonderful. Deanie.
(19:11):
Deanie masturbates she enjoys her own sexuality, although she doesn't
know very much about what she's doing. And everyone heard
that word. But I met another principal, a male principle,
and he said to me, I couldn't have that book
on my shelves. It would be different. He said, if
(19:31):
it was about a boy, why why Because girls in
those days and even in days today, are not supposed
to enjoy their own sexuality.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
So the book, the books are formal rebellion against that
formal protest.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It wasn't really it was. I remember writing Deanie, thinking,
you know, I mean, it's not about that, it's about
parental expectations and what that can do to kids. But
I remember thinking, oh, how I wish I had had
a book to read when I was twelve or thirteen
and exploring my own body, and my friends and I
(20:13):
talked about it. You know, do you have that special place?
Can you get that special feeling? We didn't know what
it was, but we knew I was lucky that I
had people I could talk to about that. And I wanted,
I think, to write that in because I knew it
to be true. Maybe not for everybody, but it was
(20:34):
true certainly for me and for my friends, and I
wanted kids to know it was okay, It's normal, normal, normal,
It's fine.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, Deanie is the reason I just don't walk into
my fourteen year old room without knocking.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Every time I tell somebody, are you there, guy, it's me.
Margaret is coming out of the movie. He all say,
it's just coming out of the movie, Like, well, why
do you takes so long to get this turned into a.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Mem I'll tell you why, because for fifty years I
wouldn't sell it. I wouldn't let it go. I was
worried about what they might do to it. And then
I don't know, then I woke up to some of
the really good stuff that was being done. And I
got this fabulous letter from Kelly Freeman Craig and telling
(21:28):
me about how much she wanted to do it and
telling me about her first movie, a movie I had
seen in love and who her mentor was, James L. Brooks,
And it was like, this sounds promising. And they came
to see me, and they made a very persuasive case,
(21:48):
and it was if fudge the nineties Fudge was a
bad experience for me. This was as good as an
experience can be, I think for the writer of a
book to be. So they just made me feel so
welcome and they wanted to hear what I thought, you know,
(22:12):
and it was an inclusive It was just a wonderful,
happy process. And the end the movie could not please
me more. I love the movie.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I love it. They and they kept it set in
the seventies. That was something that I said, you can't,
you can't put this in another era because it's not
going to work. And they kept it in the seventies.
So it's very nostalgic. And I think for my readers
who have now grown up to go and see this,
I think, you know it's going to it's their childhoods.
(22:47):
I think I hope they're going to like it.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Would you ever sell to TV and film rights to
all of your books? You want to keep some of
them just as literature?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Oh no, I'm open. I'm willing yep, and about some
others because I had this great experience.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
You know now, you know you have always fought against
since the ship and the banning of books. Are there
any topics you stayed away from because they were too controversial?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Never? But you know again, go back to that young woman.
I was writing the books, and I didn't know. I
didn't know what I could or couldn't do. Nobody told me.
The seventies was a great time for kids books, for
people who were writing kids books, for the kids who
(23:36):
were reading them. It was a very open time, and
publishers were willing to take chances. I mean, that was
a chance that my publisher took on that I'm not
sure I knew it, but that was a real chance.
And I had the most wonderful editor in the world,
so I was so so lucky. A guy worked with
(23:58):
me on a lot of these books. Wonderful, wonderful person.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Do you think you could write in this era?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
This era of cancel culture and fake outrage and backlash
about every little thing.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Let's just say that I'm glad I wrote when I did,
and that I have a bookstore to keep me very
busy now, and so I'm not. I think the only
way I would be happy writing now is the way
I was when I wrote In The Unlikely Event, which
is historical fiction. Basically, it doesn't feel like it to
me because it took place during my lifetime, but it
(24:33):
did take place in the fifties, and I think that's
the only way I would feel comfortable today. I don't
like to read books where everything is texts and emails,
and I don't I you know, I want something else.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Write about experiences. I like experiences.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, and I like to be in the characters' heads.
I like to know what's going on. I need to
believe them when I'm reading a book. But I'm an
easy I'm an easy person to make believe that this
is happening. I love stories.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Can we talk a little blobber Lover? I like Blover
me too.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
It should be, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It addressed the bullying decades before bullying became like a
hot topic in this country.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
We didn't even call it bullying. I called it. When
people said what is it about, I would say victimization.
In the classroom, we didn't even use the word bully.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It is a teasing Jones and like that was regular.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
You know, it's been banned in some schools and libraries
because of the language.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
And some people even feel like they say they feel
like the bullies prevailed. How do you feel about the
reception to the book.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Oh, it's been a long time. I mean there was
a time when, yes, it was like you know, evil
goes unpunished. But I was trying to be real and
my kids were in that age group riding a school bus,
and I wanted to reflect that school bus culture. And
(26:10):
actually my daughter came home from school and would tell
us at the dinner table about this terrible stuff that
was happening. Wasn't happening to her. But she was like
the quiet child, the observer, like Rochelle I think her
name is in the book, and doesn't do anything, doesn't
know what to do, but sees how terrible this is.
(26:34):
And ultimately, you know, when the kid who is bullied,
Linda gets the chance to become a bully she does.
I mean there's a reality there, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I never looked at it like the bullies prevailed.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
I just looked at it like Linda just always wanted
to be accepted and like most kids just want.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
To be accepted.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
And she ended up, you know, getting accepted by the
people who used to bully her. But she didn't care
that she was turned in too the bully. She just
happy to be accepted exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah. Yeah, it has nothing to do really with obesity.
There's nothing to do with that, you know. It's it's
let's see how far we can go, and some people
just let you go. Father and father.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
It's interesting too. But now that I think about it,
it's kind of like.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
A power right, Like everybody always we get mad at
people with power, and then some people get some internal
into exactly what they always hated.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes, it is about power. Sometimes I tell kids it's
about mean girls in fifth grade, and they, oh, I
know about that. It's tough. I mean, being a kid,
it's tough. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Now we know how Ronald Reagan's election impacted the consumption
of your books?
Speaker 1 (28:08):
How did it impact your creativity?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
It didn't. I mean, you know, it made me angry,
and I think being angry is good for me. It
was better for creativity than being sad. You know, let's
get out there, let's be angry. I mean, that was
that was such a crazy time. And yet and yet
(28:34):
what we have going on today is even worse, more serious,
more dangerous. And it's going on.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
How the current political climate and like the rise of
Maga influenced your creativity doesn't make you want to, you know,
pick up the pinnigain.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It makes me want to puke. It's just, you know,
I does it? Tell me again? What you said? Does
it have to do?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
It didn't influence your creativity now? Like do you know
you feel like you know you have something to say?
You want to push back on a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
What I have to say, I mean, I would say
out loud, I don't have to write about it. I'm
eighty five next week, you know I don't. It's just
I don't want to write anymore. I don't feel that need.
It used to be a real need, a burning need.
(29:35):
I had to do it. I had to do it,
and I think I did it and I got it out,
and I'm glad that I did it. I sometimes I
look at those books, and I don't really relate, Like
did I really write those books. It's a strange, you know,
it's a strange disconnect. But that doesn't stop me from
(29:58):
being politically furious and disgusted and even frightened for what's
going on today. Frightened that teachers and librarians have been told,
you know, if you have these books in your collections,
(30:19):
we can take you to jail. You're going to be prosecuted,
or people calling them up and saying we're going to
kill you. I mean, it's how about kids who now,
in certain states I just read this, they can't dress
in clothing that doesn't belong to the sex to which
(30:40):
they were born. So I mean, like, can I not
wear pants? I mean, could you not wear a tout?
You know, we have a day here. Many days in
Key West we all have two tooths and we were
two tooths. Why I don't know, because Key West is
(31:00):
a party town. And what days do we wear to
Just Saint Patrick's Day? My husband and I had green
tutooths and we did a little race. And you know,
people will come into the bookstore and toutoths are just
very big. I always wanted to to to. So at
(31:21):
last I have it to to you know, where what
you want?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Can you believe it?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Eighty five all this stuff is still going on, like
nothing is really changed, and you're here in Florida, which
is like the episode of Since the Ship and de
banning of books.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
In America right now.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
You know, we like to think Key West is its
own little country, its own its own island away from Florida,
but we do have the same governor as the rest
of the state. It's shocking. You know. I came to
Miami Beach, well I maybe you know that from starting
Sally J. Friedman. I came to Miami Beach as a
(32:01):
nine year old and so and I fell in love
with what my life was like there because it was
so free and you know, we were free range kids then,
and we played outside until dark and then we knew
it was time to go home. And there was just
something so wonderful about it. And so when I came
to Key West, it was like, oh, look, I ride
(32:23):
the same bike that I used to ride when I
was nine years old, the same you know whatever. We
call it Key West Cruiser with just foot breaks and
the palm fronts at night against the Midnight Blue of
the Sky. It all made me feel ten years old again. Wow,
And so I loved it. And the political climate was
(32:48):
so different. We've been here almost thirty years and things
have changed so much thirty years wow politically, Well, why.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Are it important for you to champion office who are
under attack for the content of their work?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Oh? Always, I've always, you know, we're in this together,
sisters and brothers. I mean, you know who. Whatever work
is attacked, and it's usually work for young people. I
want to be there for as long as I can
be there to defend them.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
You know, technology and social media have exposed like children
is so much at an early age. You think your
books would still be considered taboo if you know, if
they were released.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
In this time.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
You know, I don't well release now who knows because
of things are so crazy. But yes, kids can find information,
they know how to find information. They don't need Margaret
to tell them about periods. So that's different. But it's not.
I never wrote them so much for information. As for emotion,
(34:00):
it's the emotional information that's different. It's about what's going
on inside you.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I think that connects us from generation to generation. I
hope so I feel connected through books to my mother's generation.
You know, she was a big reader. She always encouraged
me to read, and my daughter and I read. That
was a way we could communicate, even when things were
(34:30):
rough between us. We could communicate by handing each other
books to read. So books survey more. They're so much
more than entertainment, but first they have to be entertaining
for kids.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
You have your Judy bloom Forward documentary and are you there?
God is meet Margaret coming out this spring? Are you
bracing yourself for a new wave of criticism potentially our backlash?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
No, okay, I'm bracing myself for all good things.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
At this point.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Do you even care if somebody did have criticisms? Do
you even care to defend yourself at this point and
defend your work?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Probably? Yeah, I mean I don't know that you ever
stopped caring about that. You're my babies, you know.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
You portray the experience of children so vividly, you know,
and even when I see you coming here to day,
it's like you're very childlike, You're dancing, Like how are
you able to stay aligned with the emotions connected to
being a kid growing up?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That's a good question. I mean I identify with kids.
I think, you know, inside I'm partly twelve. I love kids.
I can be four, you know, I can when a
little kid comes in, I'm looking over there because that's
(35:56):
the little kid's section. So when a little kid comes
into the book section, let's say four years old, I mean,
we can make eye contact. I know this seems crazy,
but it's like I know you and you know me.
There's some kind of connection. I think you know a
(36:16):
lot of people have that, and that's just something that's
just a way that you're you're born or that you are,
that you keep your connection with the child that you
were and with children. I'm not that great with teens.
I have to tell you, I'm not that great with teenagers,
(36:39):
but up to twelve, I really love them, and I
really feel for them and un identify with them.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
It comes to your right though. I mean the empathy
that you have in your stories.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
And I always think about that because like, no, you
go to therapy and they have discussions with you about
your inner child, and we tend to not get of
our inner child's grace.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Which you tend to give. You know, a lot of
these kids grace in these books.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I love my inner child. I yeah, I think when
I think about my life, I think the most interesting,
exciting years were up to age twelve, and then at
twelve something happens. You know, you start figuring things out.
(37:30):
My parents are just people, you know, my teachers are
just people. And everything changes. Not everything is new and
exciting anymore. It's you know. So I once was going
to write a memoir my life from one to twelve. Wow,
(37:51):
I didn't do it. I didn't do it, but I
thought about doing that.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Do you remember everything?
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I don't know if it's everything, but I remember a lot, Yes,
a lot in great detail. Yeah. It bothers me when
my friends don't. Sometimes I'm talking to my best friend,
she's still my best friend. We met at twelve, and
she'll say, I can't remember any of that stuff, and
it's like, how can you not remember? That was us?
(38:18):
That was so exciting. But I mean some people do
and some people don't.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Did you have a hard time processing feelings and emotions
as a child and when he was writing did the
did the books help help help with that?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
I think the books helped a lot. Yeah. I think
I was. I was. I was an anxious kid. I
had exema, and I was a very fearful child. My
mother was a fearful person. And I slowly came out
of that around like fourth grade. And but I can remember.
(38:55):
I can remember all of that, which is so weird
because you know, I looking back at my writing, I think, Oh,
you were fearless in your writing when you weren't in
your life. You know, you could be fearful in life
and then let it all out be fearless in your work,
(39:18):
which is so strange.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
You think it's because you know, you get older, you
have a better understanding of things.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
You might you don't understand things when you're a cable
and you can look back on it, you have a
better understanding, So it makes you less afraid.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Maybe there are always new things to be afraid.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
I love them.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
But yeah, and my writing, I was never afraid.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
From your first publishing in nineteen sixty nine, like you know,
you consistently publish books until about two thousand and eight.
Then you had like a break before publishing in the
unlikely event like what happened in Oh Wait to twenty fifteen?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
What made you stop writing?
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Oh? When I wrote in the Unlikely Event, I said
to my husband and to the world, this is it.
This is it. First of all, this is the book.
This is how I feel anyway, this is the book
I was meant to write. Okay, this is the book
that was always there, but I never thought about writing it,
telling the story. And I was locked up for five
(40:25):
years doing this book. And I said that's it. I'm done.
I'm done, and nobody believed it, but it was true.
And before that, there were you know, I was always
involved in some creative project. I mean, we may Tigerize
the movie that took up a lot of time, moved houses,
(40:50):
and I loved moving. It was always an excuse not
to write. It was a creative experience, building a new nest.
I didn't have to write. But because writing is hard,
it's hard, you know, it's painful. It can really get
(41:15):
to you. After I stopped and I, you know, we
opened the store. We just kind of fell into our
laps that we were very lucky and people would come
in and say, oh, you look so happy, and I
would think, yeah, because I love what I'm doing and
I don't have to go into that little room by myself.
(41:37):
I have to say, when I was writing, I loved it.
I mean I couldn't wait to get up in the
morning to go and do this and do this, but
you know this. Yeah, but by the end, and I
love doing the research for unlikely event, I loved it,
and I said, I'm never doing another book without research.
(42:00):
But because it gave you, you know, they're the pieces
to the puzzle that I talk about. It gave you
so many pieces to the puzzle that were there for
you to take them and use them as you need
it to. So writing was wonderful. It changed my life.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
That's understated me to change.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Maybe it saved my life. You know, it might have
saved my life. And so I'm always grateful. Two, you know,
the fact that I did it, the people who read
the books, the people who published the books and stood
behind me. I'll always be grateful.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
What is Julie Bloom's favorite Julie Bloom book?
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Oh? No, probably from kids. And I tell them it's
like asking a mother, which one is your favorite child?
You know, some days it's this one, some days it's
that one. But you know, I mean, I I could
tell you stories about all of them, but Margaret, because
it brought me so many readers. Fudge was the first
(43:07):
book really that brought me so many readers. Margaret Tiger
Eyes was so special to me because I think it
helped me deal all these years later with my father's
sudden death. Was just you know, I was twenty one
and he was my everything, and losing him suddenly. I
(43:33):
think I buried that. I got married at the same
time a few weeks later, and I just put all
of that away. My mother couldn't ever talk about grief
or even my father really, and so I think it
all came out in that book. So I think that
(43:54):
was you know, it's emotional writing fiction. It's so emotional,
and if it's not, I think then it's not going
to work. I think if you don't feel it for
your characters, then the people reading your books aren't going
to feel it either.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
What's your least favorite Judy bloombook? Could write over?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, I wish I could write Iggy's House over, and
I think I'd do a much better job today, But
I don't know it would be a different story.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Was great, I mean, I think that's a slept on
Judy Bloom book. It's one of my favorites. What would
you write different about it? How would you approach you difference.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
I became a better writer after I wrote that book.
I am not saying the story, but the writing of
it got you.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
When you decided to be an author, what did you
imagine success to be? And have you surpassed the expectation
that you have yourself.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I never imagined beyond getting published. You know, maybe someday
someone will publish something that I write. That's the first dream, fantasy,
and then the fantasy, you know, grows, maybe someone will
actually read something that I write. Maybe I'll actually hear
(45:17):
from somebody who reads something that I write. But this
level never, never, never, never now, I mean no, it
would have been so crazy, too fantasize. I wouldn't have
even known how to dream about this.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
No, So what did so suggest you was just somebody
reading your book back then and saying something about it
to you?
Speaker 2 (45:44):
That was that was what I could dream about. Yeah,
that was that was a dream that maybe was possible dream. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
And you've consistently said that you wrote books about things
you wanted to know. Was a kid that no one
spoke to you about. Do you think that little Judy
is proud of who you are today and what you've
done for children worldwide?
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I don't like to think about what I've done for children,
because what I did I did for me. I mean,
the writing was for me. I wasn't ever thinking about
what I'm doing for them. I don't think that's a
good way to think. Would little Judy like it? Yes?
And who would really love it so much? As my father?
(46:31):
He would be so proud.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Did he encourage you when you was younger? Like did
you did you have even share anything with him?
Speaker 2 (46:39):
Like? Oh? We sang and danced and and did you know,
performed around the house. And he was he was a dentist,
but it was very very talented with his hands. He
could build anything, make anything, and and made me costumes.
I was once the I was once I was the
(46:59):
old old gold girl. You wouldn't remember this, but she
wore a box of cigarette. You know, it was a
cigarette box, and she wore little white boots and she
came on must have been a commercial on TV and
she sang and danced And I once produced a show
in fifth grade. I liked to do shows. I loved
(47:22):
doing shows and doing the commercial break for this show
that I produced. I came out as the old as
the old gold girl in my little white boots, which
were really I didn't have little white boots. They were
white rubber galoshes. But I did my little song and dance.
(47:45):
You know. I like I was a performer, as shy
and quiet as I was early in life. Then I
became the performer and I wanted to be the producer
and the director and the star to do it all.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
Yeah, I have I have four girls, you know, so
I love to hear women talk about their fathers in
this way. So it's just a personal question. What do
I have to continue to do as a father. So
my daughters have the reverence for me like you have
for your father.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Be there for them, encourage them, support them, applaud them.
Because you were four. They're going to go in all
different directions and whatever they do, they should know that
that you love them and you're there for them.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Absolutely absolutely. You know.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
It amazes me that you and Beverly clearly never got
the chance to meet. I don't understand how they never happened.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Oh God, there wasn't. There was a time when I
was ready to take a plane. I was in la
and she lived in the Monterey area, and I was
going to take a plane. It had been arranged. She
was quite a elderly then, but she was willing to
see me, and it never happened. I don't I don't
(49:06):
know why she lived to be more than a hundred one.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Oh, she was such an inspiration to me. I would
fall off the sofa and I laughing hysterically reading her
books and saying, I want to write books like these
that you know that make kids laugh and feel good.
She was great. She was great.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Now you you enjoyed a battle with cancer?
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Oh, yes, but not not a major one. My husband
enjoyed a major one and he's fine. So I had
a little. I had a little breast cancer.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
When that happens, are you are you forced to, like
I guess, face your own mortality a little bit.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I don't think I was then as much as I
am now eighty five. It's like it's coming. We don't
know when, we don't know how. And then you say
to yourself, just live while you can and enjoy everything
(50:16):
while you can.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yes, I was glad.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
You know, are you satisfied with what you have built
and you know what you would potentially be leaving behind?
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Or you feel like you want to do more?
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Like I'm totally satisfied. You know, I think about my
kids now and is there anything I can do, you know,
to make sure that it's easier for them when I'm
not here anymore. It's it's tough. I mean, I think,
(50:54):
you know, losing a parent when your parent is young.
My father was fifty four and I was twenty one,
is very different. It's still losing a parent, and that's
always that's always a huge thing, I think, but it's
so unexpected at that early age, and it's it's more
(51:19):
expected the older you get. I mean, you know, you
know it's going to happen. I mean, my kids are
fifty nine and sixty one, they're grown ups.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Absolutely, Well, when it's all said and done, and you
know you have transitioned, what do you want the legacy
of Julie Bloom to be?
Speaker 2 (51:43):
You know, I never think of legacy. I don't even
know how to think of legacy. What do I want?
She was here, she wrote books that touched her readers,
and she sang and danced and laughed, and it was
(52:07):
it was good.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Thank you, miss Judi. I really appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
I didn't know how to I mean, thank you. I
never thought that this would actually happen. So the fact
that it happened, I just let's me know.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
God is real. Thank you very much, thank.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
You so much. This is so great. You're great at this.
They're wonderful.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
Thank you, thank you.
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