231. Finding Nemo Style

"Fudge-a-Mania," chapters 4-6. Jody and Molly obsess over the 1990 fan-fave by Judy Blume. Uncle Feather (not a scuba diver) goes missing! Sheila scores a sweet childcare gig, and Peter is Peter-ing. Jody and Molly do some dramatic readings and chat about dreaming birds, Gary Paulsen, and street urchin photo-ops. Molly presents a fantastic Special Report on the history of babysitting, and Jody spills a secret she's never revealed before. Huge thank you to Blume Heads Susan and Alison for their wonderful letters! It's a Judy Blume book club. Join us every other week! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, I'm Jody and I'm Mollie, and you're listening to
the Bloom Saloon.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's a Judy Bloom book club.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yes it is. And we are reading Judy Bloom today.
That's exciting. We're reading Fudginania, chapter four through six today.
We have a lot for you today. Mollie and I
were just discussing our agenda. We'll give you a little
sneak peek. We've got some listener letters, We've got some

(00:44):
special reports. We're gonna talk about babysitting. We're going to
talk about birds, dreaming and bicycle Bob. And you're just
tuning in for the first time. Now you should go
back and listen to last episode. Yeah, because that's when
we start the book. Yay. So we have a couple letters.
We have a letter from Susan Susan Jay. She says, Hi,

(01:08):
Jody and Molly, I am not a toilet reader, but
my husbast husbast has to read something whilst sitting on
the throne. Lately, we've been talking about a retirement house.
He can retire at fifty five, a short six years
from now. Okay, young, I know my vision is to

(01:29):
have built in bookshelves in every room, and I casually
said except for the bathroom, to which Husbast exclaimed, but
that's the most essential room to have a bookshelf. Also,
I love the idea of Jimmy Fargo's father being a
famous transient. Love another indoor sports Sue J Cool. Oh,

(01:53):
Sue J Cool, Thank you, SUEJ. Cool. That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
To no one's surprise, my childhood home did have a
bookshelf in the bathroom. Not now, let me actually roll
this back, not a whole bookshelf, but in the wall
across from the toilet. They had built into the wall
an indentation to hold magazines. So we regularly put books

(02:21):
and magazines in there. And that's how I got into
this mess in the first place.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
So it was specifically sized for magazines.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I've gotta assume. I don't know what else would have
been in there, but yeah, like a like.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
A dentist office.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, and actually I was just talking to my grandma
about this last night. My mom's side of the family
was big magazine people like my grandma did have built
in like a dentist office in her den, like shelves
that were shallow for putting magazines, So she basically had
a whole wall that was just people magazines and I

(02:59):
read those all the time.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yes, we had a whole garage full of like ten
years worth of national geographics. Wow, you know, like the
yellow spines, just all stacked up. And my mom always
thought like she'd you know, she was saving from my
high school research. But little did she know the internet
would be around in high school.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
That's so funny. I think my grandma also had like
one lone national geographic on her magazine Rat, so it
would be the rack would be like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie,
and then that one gal with the scary piercing blue eyes.
Everybody here who's hearing that and is of a certain

(03:42):
age knows exactly the picture I'm talking about. She was
so pretty, so pretty, so spooky, so pretty.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Did you ever see how she aged like when they
found her when she was older? Oh no, I mean,
you know, she had a hard light, so I think
you know that reflected in her appearance. But it was
really good to know she was still around. Oh my god,
thank god those eyes though, those eyes have never changed. Yeah,

(04:13):
I agree with your husbast Sue j Cool. I think
you should have a bookshelf in the bathroom. I think
that would be the epitome of class and taste. And
I don't know, just wipe those books down every I
love this plan for your retirement.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
That sounds bougie as hell, and also retiring at fifty five, Like,
oh my god.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Good for you to Yeah, how do you make that work?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah? Please share your financial tips and pictures of your
bookshelf bathroom asap.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, keep in touch, Okay.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Allison Darling wrote this on our private and free Facebook group, Mollie,
have I got a field trip for you? I died
when you mentioned dances with wolves when I moved from
CT to CA. Haha, CT is Connecticut yet?

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, thank you. I knew that. I was just making
sure the bloomheads do that. Anyway, when I moved from
CT to CA, we took some time to travel the country.
We stopped in Jackson County, South Dakota, at a place
called eighteen eighty Town. It contains real buildings from the

(05:25):
eighteen eighties and they gathered in one area to replicate
a real eighteen eighty town. There's also an entire section
dedicated to some of the props and buildings that they
actually used in Dances with Wolves. But more importantly, you
can dress up in eighteen eighty outfits for only ten

(05:46):
dollars and go around the town and take pictures. We
went on an off season day in September and had
the place to ourselves. These are some of my favorite
memories of this journey. I have several of them for
in my house. You have to go look at these pictures.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
They're amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
And then she says in parentheses and yes, I watched
Dances with Wolves recently and it's very white men. Save
your vibes. But we must remember that even in the
nineteen nineties, it was revolutionary to present an entire movie
saying that the white people were wrong to murder the
Native Americans. This is coming off decades of John Wayne
type movies where people justified the slaughter of Native Americans

(06:26):
dot dot dot. And also Kevin Costner shows his butt
and it's worth the watch just for that. Yes, which
I have to say about Killers of a Flower Moon.
No one shows their button that movie. So if you're
gonna watch a movie, might as well watch Dances with Wolves.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I'm here for some ass.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
I love ass, male ass and movies, more, more.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
And more.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
I also love that you can dress up for ten
dollars and just walk around the entire town. At first
I thought they were just like in a little photo
set up, but this is the entire town that sold me.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
That absolutely, absolutely absolute Cranberry sold me because that sounds
like the most fun afternoon I can possibly imagine. And
I'm not I'm being facetious zero percent. This is my
dream afternoon.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Same. So should we add Jackson County, South Dakota to
our field trip list?

Speaker 2 (07:24):
One hondo p. I want to go so badly because
I also am super interested in that period of history.
Not interested enough to watch that Yellowstone spin off show
because I'm young and vibrant, but I love Little House
on the Prairie and that is similar time period and
similar outfits. And also my life goal, one of my

(07:48):
life goals that I have yet to accomplish is I need,
not want, need to take old timey western saloon photos
with some of my friends and our family. Do you
know what I'm talking about, Jodie? Yes?

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Have you never done this?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
No? I never have done this.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Anything in the same vein like a Dickens Fair photo opportunity.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
You may well ask. I have been to Dickens Fair
several times, and every single time the groups that I
went with said no, it's too expensive. I have been
to the Mall of America and that group said no,
it's too expensive.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Nay.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Just last year, two years ago, I went to Knot's
Berry Farm with my grandma and my aunt begged them
on bended me to take these photos with me, and
they said, no, it's too expensive. My best friend has
done it with her family and other friends, I guess
several times, and no one has done it with me,

(08:52):
and I'm furious.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
I am so pissed for you. Oh mad Oh it
is expensive, Yes, but these treasures laughed a last a
five time on your mantle if you want them to. Yes.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
The closest I ever got was my mom took my
brother and I to take photos at a similar place
when we were little, but it wasn't Western theme. It
was weirdly like carpetbagger, great Depression themed. So we have
those pictures.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
You have this thing like what are you wearing?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I'm so glad you asked. My brother, who's probably three,
is wearing like a shirt, a tie, suspenders, a fedora.
He's holding in one hand a suitcase like not a briefcase,
like a suitcase, and in the other hand a teddy bear.

(09:50):
I'm on the other side, I like a little like
not quite Miss Hannigan because it wasn't like an neglige
but it was like similar vibe dress, a little floppy hat,
also a teddy bear and suitcase. And you can tell
I was directed not to smile. So it's just my
brother and I looking like whoa begone? Like, oh no,

(10:14):
we lost the farm and it used to be prominently
displayed in our living room. So that's the closest I've
ever got, and I that's upsetting. I'm so mad. I
need to take those photos, so I think eighteen eighty
down is the place to take them.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Okay, I agree. I just this vision of you and
your brother like being sold off. Yeah, I guess there's
some tears of corn.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, literally like four sale children's shoes, very worn because
the kids are three and five. But you'll get it.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
So can we post this phone? Oh duh?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
But also I would like to put the app out there, bloomheads.
If you have taken western photos, please send them to me, yeah,
and then also allow me to edit them so I
can put myself into your photos, so I can have
a facsimile of what would be like to have friends
or family who didn't think it was too expensive.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
This is the best plan I've ever heard of. Yes,
blue Heads, this is a challenge. Please accept it. Ooo.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Okay, So first we have the Hatcher family. So we
have Peter, who we've determined is eleven. We have his
younger brother, Fudge, who is five. We have Tutsi, who
is indeterminate baby age but colid foods eating. And then

(12:03):
we have Grandma Muriel, who is Mom's mom, who is
again felt ancient to us, is likely like sixty, if
not in her fifties. Ah, but she's really cool because
she is paying for most of the trip and she
used to run a gymnastics camp, so she's very limber.

(12:26):
In my mind, I picture Grandma as like that Molly
Shannon character that's like, I'm fifty and I could do kicks.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yes, yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And then we have mom and Dad, both make brief
appearances mister and Missus Hatcher. Uncle Feather, who it must
be said, is a bird, a minor bird and not
an adult turtle, who is a dog. And that's the
Hatcher family. Then we have the Tubman family, which consists

(13:02):
of Buzzy Senior, which is the Tubman patriarch, who is
Grandma's age. Potentially, we have Libby, who is Sheila's older
sister who I believe is fourteen. Then we have Sheila
who is Peter's age, Missus Tubman age unknown. I don't

(13:23):
think mister Tubman is in this. But then we have
neighbors missus A, who is likely I'm assuming Grandma's age.
And then our favorite son of a transient, Jimmy Fargo.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Son of a transient, son of a transient.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh, you know what, I think it's safe to say.
I bet Jimmy Fargo grew up pot.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think so too. Also, he's an environmentalist. He has
saved the whale posters. I like him. It's good that
we can talk about nine year olds in this way.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
That was what was missing from the discourse, but not
currently Now he's eleven. Okay, so h Chapter four the
worst news of the century. Now, if you'll remember, at
the end of chapter three, Turtle the dog had gotten
sprayed by a skunk after spending again ten full American

(14:22):
hours in the car from New York to Maine. So
the first thing they do when they get to the
house is scrub turtle with tomato juice and a special
shampoo called Skunked. Ooh, and Peter ungrateful, as soon as
he gets out of the car, wants to get back
in the car and go right back home to New York.

(14:43):
He keeps asking to go home because he's especially mad
that instead of staying in a house separated by the
Tubmans from but with a forest, they're actually in a
house that's separated by a staircase. Now I would have
to draw what this looks like, I think, to orient
my mind. But according to page twenty three, it says

(15:05):
that there's an inside door that separates them from each other,
and on the Hatcher side of the door there's a
staircase leading to three bedrooms and one bathroom, and they
share the living room and the kitchen with the Tubmans.
So I think this is an enormous house. It sounds

(15:26):
so pick.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
And it sounds like maybe they're just all in like
an attic annex. It's not even definitely not separate houses
that just share a kitchen. They're just like in an
addition to the house.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, I wonder if like, originally this is where like
I don't know the help live. Yeah, might be because
they describe it as and this is also if you're interested,
this is who is sharing a room with whom? So
it says upstairs. Mom and Dad looked over the three bedrooms.
They chose the one with a double bed for themselves.

(16:03):
The second bedroom had a single bed plus a crib.
Grandma would share that room with TUTSI, which left the
smallest bedroom for Fudge and me. So I think it's
weird that Grandma's in a room with the baby. I
think it's weird that the parents aren't in a room
with the baby. But what do I know? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Agree?

Speaker 2 (16:21):
And then it made me want to ask when you
guys would go on family trips, what was the configuration,
Like did you always have to share with your sister?
Did you usually get your own room? Like what's the vibe?

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, it was definitely like adjoining hotel rooms and me
and my sister are in one room and sometimes sharing
a bed.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, I was gonna ask about that because I had
a brother, so the bed sharing was like extremely minimal,
but sometimes it would get broken up, like my mom
and I would share a bed and then my dad
and my brother would share a bed, or we'd get
we'd be all in the same hotel room and I'd
get a bed and my brother would get a roll away.
But it is just like whoa, We really were trying

(17:04):
to stack everybody into as least possible space.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
I've always wondered that one never thought to ask, yeah,
what do brothers and sisters do? But now I know, thank.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
You, yeah anytime. Or we had this other family that
we traveled with that had kids the same age as us,
and when that was true, they would kind of throw
all the kids in one room on sleeping bags on
the floor, and so it was either kid pile or
roll away.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Basically, right when you're a kid, you can't. You have
no recourse. You just have to go with it, no
matter how unhappy you are. So yeah, I feel for Peter,
I feel for Grandma.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
I feel for grandma too, especially because she's paying for it.
I'm a little mad. It's very much the trouble that
like single people get in when you rent an airbnb
with your friends. Oh yeah, it's like, oh, the couples
get this beautiful room with the bathroom in a view,
and oh Molly you don't have a boyfriend, You're okay
sleeping on the dog bed, right, You're fine?

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Right?

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh not really, or there's the like dorm room of
single people. It's just in like the bunk beds.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
That has happened to me now so often that I'm
kind of like, you know what, I like it. I
don't mind that. I would so much rather that than like,
you sleep in the couch in this room that we're
all going to be in until midnight.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, I mean you can make it the fun room.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yes, absolutely, you can make it the fun room. I'm
a big let's gossip until one of us passes.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Out, uhuh mid sentence, yes, always.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
So that's but that's I get the impression that that's
not gonna be what Fudge and Peter do.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
No, it's a lot of uh talking and sleep and kicking.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
But luckily they've arranged it so that Uncle Feather isn't
sharing a room with them. He's downstairs in the common area. Which, again,
if I was the tubmans, I would be like, oh sick,
cool to have this huge bird and bird cage in
our living room. That's fun. Yeah, I am personally extremely
anti bird, so that's uh my bias is showing a

(19:13):
little bit.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Oh, we should talk. We should set aside some time
to talk about this. I don't wait. Just quick question though.
Are you anti bird in life or anti bird in cages? Oh?

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Both?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (19:28):
I think birds as a group are I respect them?
I think obviously they should exist and be happy. I
find them so gross. And if somebody if I'm at
the most beautiful, perfect man for me ever and he
was like, hey, so I have a macaw, I would

(19:49):
just be single forever. I would never that would be
such a huge deal baker for me, because I think
they're so gross and scary.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Okay, let me take it down and notch though. I
just want to see where you're lying. Is what if
he was just like a weekend burder.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Oh that's adorable. That's the dorkiest thing I've ever heard.
I'm so down.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
You're not that evil.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
No, I'm not bird Cuella Deville. Okay, Okay, I just
don't want them in the same house as me.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Anyway, Sorry to listeners who have birds. I'm sure you
have birds that you cherish. All I'm asking don't date me.
That's that's all I'm trying to say.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
I respect that.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
So the next afternoon they start to settle into the town.
And the town, to remind you, is Southwest Harbor, Maine,
and that's where Judy wrote this book. So a lot
of these businesses are real businesses, which brings us to
our first mini special report. And the first mini special
report is on Bicycle Bob, who is a real person

(20:57):
and who owns Southwest Cycle, which is bicycle rentals, sales
and service in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Yes it's a real business.
Yes it still exists. And if you go to their
website and click about us, the first thing you see
is a big ass picture of bicycle Bob. He's so cute.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
I'm going there right now. What's the website.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
It's Southwest Cycle dot com. And then look about us.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Oh, I love him so cute.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
We'll post a picture, don't you worry. But I'm going
to read for the bloomheads. The description that's underneath this
really cute picture of bicycle Bob, and it says, prior
to opening Southwest Cycle in nineteen eighty one, I had
worked in three different shops in New York and Connecticut,
CT beginning in nineteen seventy four. I've always loved fine

(21:54):
handbuilt steel bikes and have several in my personal collection.
Up until twenty twenty three, I had an unbroken streak
of riding up Cadillac Mountain as many times as my
age that year plus one, but that became an awful
lot of a sense of decense. So bicycle Bob is
out here as recently as twenty twenty three, biking up

(22:16):
and down these mountains. Gosh, I'm gonna guess like sixty
plus times.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
You can't see too much of his legs in the photo,
but I feel like they're good legs.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
They gotta bet, they gotta be. And now the store
is run by people who I assume are Bob's progeny,
which are Evan, Bob Junior, Mark, Anthony, Henry, Charlie and Ken,
And there are pictures of them on the website too.
But I saw at the very end of this page

(22:49):
there's a contact button, so I emailed, don't get excited,
don't get too excited, don't get see it's the first
step of a journey. I emailed Southwest Cycle and I said, Hey,
we're doing a podcast and we have a section where
we do special reports. Could the original Bob send us
in a special report about did he meet Judy? What's

(23:14):
it like in Maine? Blah blah blah blah blah. So
I just sent that like twenty minutes before recording, and
I see ce, do you, Jody? So we'll see if
he gets back. But I'm trying to build in a
real life bicycle pop special.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Reports Molly doing the Lord's work. This is so good. Oh,
I just noticed something. They opened in nineteen eighty one. Yes,
and if this book was supposed to take place in
the linear timeline, bicycle Bobs wouldn't exist. So does this

(23:49):
mean the book does take place in nineteen ninety No,
I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying
to figure out what year we're in. But I think
this is a good clue, And Mollie, I found some
other clues too. I'm gonna drive you crazy by the
end of this episode. But everything is a clue to me.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
This is like you're gonna find quickly, like where my
limit is for like suspension of disfelief, for kinds of
stuff like this. It's a problem I'm running into now
with my friend who keeps sending me severance like conspiracy
theory yeah, yea, And I'm good for like five, and
then after they send me five, I start getting ornery

(24:30):
about it, and I'll be like, no, the dog's name
isn't Radar because he tests radar frequencies. If you were
trying to do a secret mission, why would you code
name your dog something that gives away the secret mission?
I'm so mad.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
I mean, I would think radar is named after Big
Birds Teddy Bear radar, yes, or radar from Mash Oh
radar for Mash, which I think Big Birds Teddy bar
Bear is named after Yes.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
See, so you get me. But I'm happy to entertain
all of your timeline Joe Wormhole Slider's sort of stuff
about fudge Mania.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
I promise after this episode, I'll stop.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I know, don't you ever stop? This would be so fun,
don't The other thing I wanted to mention is another
place that they went was oz Books, and Judy said
in her letter that there really was an oz Books
but in fudger Mania. Okay, maybe this disrupts your wormhole theory.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Oh okay, let's hear it.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
In fudge Mania, oz Books is run by a woman
named Dorothy, and we meet her later, I think, But
Peter calls her Dorothy of oz. It's funny, it's thematic.
In real life, OZ Books was not run by a
woman named Dorothy, but it was run by a woman

(25:50):
named Sheila, whoa the lady in question, Sheila Wolenski, who
owned OZ Books from nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety seven,
so fifteen years she owned OZ Books in Southwest Harbor, Maine.

(26:14):
But it is no longer there anymore. And now she
is a writer and an educator. But how how crystals
is that? That is very crystals? Oh, crystals.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
It all means something. We don't know what, but it
means something.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Right, all will be revealed.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
They go to pick up Grandma from the airport, and
as soon as Grandma comes to the door and meets everybody,
she turns four cartwheels on the lawn. Jody, do you
know how to do a cartwheel?

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Oh? Can you still? Oh?

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah? I can do a back walk over, I can
do a back handspring. I can do handstands and headstands.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know what might be great? Let me put this
bug in your ear. Muriel says that she'll teach Sheila
how to do a cartwheel and Jimmy Fargo is also
interested to how to do a cartwheel. So maybe a
project we get assigned to you is, could you make
a video teaching us how to do a cartwheel? Oh?

Speaker 1 (27:16):
I would love nothing more a step by step instructional yes, please, Mollie.
Can't you so you can't do a cartwheel? Or you can?

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Oh? Geezh. I think there was probably a half an
hour in nineteen ninety seven where I could do a cartwheel.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Okay, okay, but I.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Just I don't believe in my body enough to think
I could do one now. But it's because I haven't
watched your tutorial.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, I got you, I got you. I'm already the
wheels are turning.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
I'm so excited. That'll be great.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Muriel, could you teach me how to turn cartwheels?

Speaker 2 (27:58):
I don't see why now, but I ran a gymnastics
camp for years.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Oh, I just love to turn cartwheels. My friend Mouse
Ellis can turn cartwheels.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
You have a friend named mouse.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Mouse, Mice, creepy cry lies, Fudgie, that's not exactly nice.
My friend Mouse is coming here in ten days.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
But that's when Jimmy Fargo's coming.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Jimmy Fargo's coming here.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, for a week at least.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
That's the worst news of the century, the worst news
of the century, the worst news of the century. Stop
that fudgie.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
And here I'll interject to say it says, Sheila picked
him up and shook him as you said, Peter says,
Is that any way to treat your future husband?

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, Mommy never shakes dad. We're never getting married. If
you act that way, say you're sorry, or the wedding's off.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Are you gonna let her boss you around like that?

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Just stay out of this, Peter.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah, Pete, fine, you want to cook your own goose,
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
I don't have a goose, Pete.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
It must be said. Your fudge voice is great.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Oh, thank you. I was nervous.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
No, I miss Allison every day of this pod. But
you are such a worthy successor to the Fudge voice.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
She laid the foundation. I can only hope to build
upon it. But I have to say it really hurts
your throat.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Oh yeah, she was doing the lord's work and putting
her vocal cords on the line for us.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yes, I need some of that tea Peter has in
the next chapter.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
I meant to research that dude, shoot.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
I have a couple things to say about chapter four
before we get into chapter five, though.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Please.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
There's some chat about whether or not Uncle Feather is dreaming,
and they're like, birds don't dream. They kind of blow
him off.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
I did a quick google and it turns out that
birds absolutely do dream, and they dream mostly of flying
and singing.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Ah, how do we know this?

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Researchers have figured out that when a bird sleeps, it's
voice box moves in ways that are very similar to
when they're actually singing when they're awake.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Whoa.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
The only explanation is like they're practicing singing in their dreams,
especially young birds, when they're learning how to do the calls.
Isn't that cute?

Speaker 2 (30:42):
It's like us in our karaoke list.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
And the researchers are also figuring out a way to
translate the vocal muscle movement to a synthetic bird song
so they can eventually play the songs that these birds
are singing in their sleep.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
I oh wow, that sounds like such as Sufian Steven's albums.
It's like Bird's dream bird calls.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Also, last note on chapter four, we have to note
that when they're going on their little errand run in town,
they go to the library to get library cards for
a three week trip. Haha.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, wait a minute.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
But then but then they go to the bookstore right
after that to buy books. So what what do they
need to lie?

Speaker 2 (31:36):
They're just voracious. They gotta have those books. I will say,
buying a book on vacation, it really scratches an itch
for me. Yeah, buying an airport book, Oh so great,
I love it. The My only caveat to this is
one time when my family went on a road trip

(31:57):
when I was a teenager and we were driving through
South Dakota and I ran out of books and I
was a pill about it. The only place that had
books was like Ralph's checkout stand. And that's the reason
I've read two Gossip Girl books against my will, because
there was nothing else to read it from the Ralphs.
So that's the only exception. Oh and it changed your life, No,

(32:22):
just made me dislike Gossip Girl books.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Chapter five. So we're into the next morning. This is
their first actual morning in Maine. Fudge is already out
of bed because he's annoying and he doesn't know how
to sleep in, and then we get a little Judy
reference here about her time at Southwest Harbor. Remember she
said it was really just muggy and damn O good catch.

(33:20):
We're getting mentioned of Peter's jeans being cold and damp
when he puts them on, and the sky outside the
window is just a pure wall of white, So it
does not sound very fun or summary. Oh downstairs, though,
it seems like there's a party. Grandma is hanging out

(33:41):
with uncle with a buzzy senior. They're laughing their heads off.
They've apparently really hit it off. Fudge is counting his cheerios.
We learn that every morning he has to count out
two hundred cheerios before he eats them. I don't know

(34:02):
about this.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
I don't know about this.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
It sounds like he might be in the early stages
of some OCD displays, or maybe he just loves to count,
but he's not very good at counting, because Peter says,
this is a really long and drawn out process because
he keeps getting his numbers mixed up. So this poor
kid just never eats his breakfast.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
But what I will say about this is the mom
says it's just a phase, and that made me think
about other times in the book when everybody kind of
puts up with fudges stuff, and if I take off
my like disgruntled older sibling hat I do think that's
a very sweet parenting technique to just like instead of

(34:48):
being like, no, stop it, you have time to cat cheerios,
you idiot, get out of here. Don't you can't eat
your breakfast in a bowl on the floor. Get out
of here, dummy. The hatchers are like, Okay, let's roll
with this. Let's let him do it, And it seems
to have worked. And I think that's just a sweet
parenting technique.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
It's so true. Is that what gentle parenting is all about?
Were they practicing gentle parenting before anyone else?

Speaker 2 (35:16):
I think so. And I also understand if I'm Peter
watching this happen, I be pierced, But as a grown up,
I think it's nice.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
The Peter and you was just like flicking those cheerios
off the table one by one.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
The Peter and me is like already anxious that it's
time to go to school, or he was wasting food,
or like all this stuff is like going through my
mind totally.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
But then we have a vision Molly our Queen enters
in a fizzy pink robe and bunny slippers.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Iconic fit. I had this exact outfit.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
I mean, she's had a real glow up. I feel
like between Terrytown and now she's really come into her
own she is. Peter wonders why Sheila's not embarrassed to
come downstairs in this good up, but he doesn't realize
how fly an iconic this is.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
This is growth, well, especially, I mean genuinely, if we
think about when she's in Terrytowne and she's all of
a sudden embarrassed to admit that she does the little
shoe game with her dad or like other things she's
embarrassed about. This is real growth to be like, I
don't give a fuck, I'm just gonna come down in this.

(36:32):
And I think that's kind of Sheila's superpower is either
I'm just gonna be confident because I'm confident, you guys,
get over it, or fake it till you make it confidence,
like with the newspaper exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
The first thing she does is open up all the
windows because she can't stand the way the house smells,
which we learn is the main smell. It's just damp
and mill do in mold and gross. And this made
me wonder. I feel like Judy didn't like Maine very much.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
She's not painting a portrait of it as super flattering.
And yet I read this as a child, and I
was like, absolutely, sign me up, Yes, yes, this sounds
so fun.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Sheila peaks into Uncle Feather's cage and is like, fetge,
where's the bird? Like, uh oh, spaghettio, where's your bird? Fudge?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 (37:35):
I mean? Uncle father is not in his cage?

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Three?

Speaker 2 (37:40):
His bird is gone?

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yes, gone as in not present, as in disappeared from you?

Speaker 3 (37:48):
Eighty four, eighty five.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Where's uncle Feather?

Speaker 1 (37:52):
Someplace nice? It's sick?

Speaker 2 (37:55):
What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (37:56):
I'm trying to count.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
I'm waiting for an answer.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
It was bored. You wanted to come out of its carrige.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
You just let him out of his cage, just for
a little while. Fifty two fifty three, go get him first.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I'll have my cereal.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Oh no, you won't first. You'll get your bird, Grandma,
and go and get your bird, Fudge, your cereal will wait.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Buzzy Senior and Grandma just like look at each other.
They're communicating with their eyes. Uh, Fudge runs over the
tub inside of the house, and then he comes back
a few minutes later. He's not there, not where, not
where I left him?

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Where did you leave him?

Speaker 1 (38:47):
But can't do.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
But he's not there anymore, and the windows open.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Well, how was I supposed to know his bird wasn't
in his cage?

Speaker 2 (38:57):
You open the windows everywhere?

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Well, yes, because of the snell. Let's not panic. Let's
think this through in a logical way.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
I've thought it through.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Come on, Peter grabs Fudge. He he dresses him in
this yellow slicker that is way too big for him.
It hangs to the ground, making him look like a
little old man with no feet.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
It's giving Vanda camps.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Wait, what's that?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Oh it's it's a brand of fish fingers fish sticks,
and they have a little man in the same outfit
on the cover. By the way, not to beat this guy,
but my brother also had that outfit. He had the
little hat and the slicker. I don't think we have
a picture of it. But oh, I'm sorry, it's Gorton's. Sorry.

(39:51):
Gorton is the fisherman. Sorry to the fish stick community. Yeah, Gorton, Oh.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
That's totally him. Yes, this little tiny Gorton is ready
to find his bird. Grandma's just like, be careful, have fun.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
The adults don't give a shit.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
They don't give a shit.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
This is very typical for the Hatchers and their pets.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, let's let the kids out into the fog so
thick you can't see an inch in front of your face.
Bye bye, Give me some cigarettes while you're round there.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Right right.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Sheila wants to come. Peter's not having that. He leaves
with Fudge and they're off. They walk towards the woods,
yelling for Uncle Feather, calling out his favorite words like
where are you stupid? They follow a trail towards the
harbor and they decide just to go do some old

(40:49):
fashioned door knocking. They stop at a house right along
the water, and here we meet missus A. And this
is such a good scene. Can we read this one?

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Cranberry absolutely doesn't. It doesn't work when you say the
lead part, shit, I fucked it up. No, it's good.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Do you want to be missus A?

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah? Okay, oh wait, no you be missus A? Because
did you a really good old lady? Boys? Oh? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I have to think of a different one.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
For no one. Okay, Fudge insists on talking because Uncle
Feather is his bird. They ring the doorbell and a
woman about Grandma's age comes to the door. Have you
seen Uncle Feather? Uncle who Uncle Feather?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Why no, at least I don't think so. But come
in out of the fog and tell me all about him.
You can call me missus a. My husband and I
live here all year round. Where are you boys staying
through the woods?

Speaker 1 (42:03):
We have a swing.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Oh yes, I've noticed a whole gang at that house.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Oh there's Mommy and Daddy and Tutsie and Grandma and
Fuzzy Senior, Sheila, Babby, Mister and Missus Tumman and Turtle Jake,
Uncle Feather, thiss iss pete.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
He's not supposed to talk.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Oh, that sore throat is going around. I had it
myself last week. What you need is some hot tea
with lemon and honey.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Something smells good.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Here's some cinnamon buns fresh from the oven. And I'll
bet you could use a nice cup of hot coco too.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
I could. I didn't have any breakfast.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Why that's terrible. On a mooning like this, you need
a big, hot breakfast.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Peter is still not talking. He's like trying to nudge
Fudge like this is a waste of time. We're trying
to find your bird. But the hot cocoa and cinnamon
buns is just way too enticing. I don't blame Fudge
one bit. Right now, why didn't we get prepared? Why
didn't we have our themed snacks? D time? She brings

(43:27):
Peter this cup of tea. It's not the tea he likes.
He likes Mo's herb tea. But he doesn't say anything.
He's he knows better. This is a helps herself to
a cinnamon bun.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
I can't resist them. Oh no, I can't. I can't
resist them.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
This is good.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Thank you, Mitzi says, My Coco's the best.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
What's Mitzi?

Speaker 2 (44:07):
My granddaughter? She's five, I'm five two. Well you'll have
to come by and meet her. She'll be here tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Okay, I'm getting married, son, but I can still have friends, right.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
That's right. Everybody needs friends.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
So we have to describe Fudge. He's sitting there picking
out each and every raisin from his cinnamon bun. Oh,
and he's also unwounded. I can totally picture this it's disgusting.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Oh, I like to eat cinnamon buns rounding. How are
you eating cinnamon buns? You're just biting from the side.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
No, I'm doing a little bit of an unwind as
I go, but not a fool unwind.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Oh okay, I guess me too. You're right, You're right.
Difference bunsplain you. I certainly hope your uncle's not outsailing
in this weather.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
I hope not too, because he doesn't know how to sail. Oh, dear,
he's not even supposed to go outside.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
That sounds serious. Have you called the police?

Speaker 3 (45:20):
Not yet.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
We called the search and rescue team?

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Are they coming soon?

Speaker 1 (45:26):
There are here?

Speaker 2 (45:28):
But that's a relief. What does your uncle look like?
In case I see someone who fits his description?

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Here's mostly black with a yellow feet and a yellow nose.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Huh oh, I get it. Your uncle's a school but diver.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Funny.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
It's so funny because I was thinking I had never
once in my whole I've questioned this until today when
I was reading. But if you heard someone describe someone
as mostly black, might might you suggest? Might you infer
that that wasn't talking about his clothes that you like? No,

(46:17):
we have a strong biracial uncle. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
This is a Judy bloombook. I don't think there's any
black character. I guess, yeah, only scuba divers.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Only scuba divers.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Fudj asks Peter, does uncle Feather.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Know how to dive?

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I'm not sure, but we've really got to go if
we're gonna find him.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
They walked to the door, and then missus A whispers
to Peter.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Is your uncle all right upstairs? She taps aside of
her head hard to say, thanks for the snack, come
back tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
Okay, Oh my god, Peter.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Plot point I think we skipped over was that when
he and Fudge go out, Buzzy Senior calls them the
search and rescue. So when missus A asks where the
search and rescue is and Fudge says they're already here,
he's talking about himself. It's a French farce, just like
everybody is missing every queue here.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Totally, totally Judy. This is such a good comic writer
she is.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
And another thing I was thinking when I was reading
this is that she's so good at writing tiny, tiny
action that's so realistic. So like Fudge unwinding his cinnamon
bun or Earlier in the scene, he's eating the cocoa
with the s and all of those are so little,
like things that little kids do that she just like,

(48:06):
she just puts him in so effortlessly. It's such good writing.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yes, So Peter explains to Fudge that missus A thinks
that Uncle Feather is actually an uncle. Fudge is like,
why would she think that? That's stupid. It's a whole
page of him trying to explain logic. It doesn't really compute.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
He ends the discussion with she made god koco. So
Peter's a little bit fed up and he's like, look,
we're never gonna find him if you keep going at
this rate. And that's when Fudge has a little bit
of a meltdown, a little bit of a reality check.
He's wailing, he's sad, his bird is gone. Peter marches

(48:57):
him along the beach. They stop at few other houses,
but it's just bleak and no sign of Uncle Feather.
So they head back home and it's a very depressing scene.
The kids are all worried again. The adults are not
in sight. They I don't know what they're doing. Are
they still sleeping?

Speaker 2 (49:17):
No?

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Suddenly there's a scream and everyone freaks out. Peter thinks
it's an intruder. He tries to grab for a weapon,
but it's just Libby being dramatic. She's yelling that there's
a bat after her. She's running around, knocking over his lamps,
making a whole scene. When Peter finally realizes it's not

(49:40):
a bet, it's a bird, it's Uncle Feather. Uncle Feather
is screaming, Libby is screaming, Totsy is screaming. And then
Dad comes down or is it Sheila's dad, one of
the dad's, Ah, Dad, Yeah, Dad comes down and says,

(50:01):
everybody freeze, and this is like a cartoon, you know,
everybody freezes in their tracks, but they kind of crash
into each other, like Domino's. Uncle Feather doesn't freeze. He
keeps on flying, and then he very delicately perches on
his cage, calling everybody stupid, and daintily hops into his

(50:23):
cage like it's no big deal, and Buzzy Senior closes
the door behind him, and then everyone's like, all's well,
that ends. Well, it's a real kind of sitcom ending,
you know. And then I haven't read this book, you know,
since I very first read it. But this scene, this

(50:44):
little bit has always stuck with me, is Fudge doing
two somersaults and then just ending up in Peter's lap.
I don't know why, but I remember that.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
That's amazing. Well, it's so brilliant because it is just
like little kids, just like I don't have any I
don't know, sense of like what you should and shouldn't
do with your body. So they're always doing stuff all
the time. And I think that's just another example of
what we were just talking about, of like Judy being
so attentive to those little realistic details. It's so funny, exactly.

(51:16):
I love it. Okay, Chapter six, The Perfect Babysitter. So
the next morning, after all that mayhem, Sheila goes up
to Mom and she says that she should babysit Fudge
and that Mom should pay her. Peter mentions that the
last time Sheila babysat Fudge, they were playing on their

(51:38):
special rocks in Central Park and oh, they're playing on
the monkey bars and Fudge fell down and broke his
two front teeth out of his mouth, which I think
that's in Super Fudge where they call him Thang. I
can't remember if it's that or tales of fourth grade. Nothing,
but she has a track record. Yeah that's not great.

(52:00):
But as she La points out, that was several years ago.
She's older and wiser, and she took a babysitting course.
I'm assuming like a Red Cross babysitters course.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
I always wanted to take one of those.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
I never did.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
So Mom agrees, even though Peter says, whoever heard of
a wife babysitting her husband? Which I have? Yeah, I
feel like the way emotional labor and physical labor goes.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Yeah, isn't that how it works?

Speaker 2 (52:32):
It do be like that. I have babysat several twenty
nine to thirty five year old men and no thanks.
So they agree on a rate that two hours in
the morning and four in the afternoon for seven dollars
a day. So they're staying there for three weeks. So

(52:54):
I assume this doesn't count on weekends unless it does.
I really don't know. But that's a pretty that's pretty good.
And I looked it up inflation.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Wise, I did too, Okay, I don't hear it.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Let's compare notes. So I did both timelines for you
the same. I love us, Okay, So in one calculation,
the CPI inflation calculator. I looked at seven dollars in
nineteen seventy has the same buying power as fifty eight

(53:29):
eighty three in twenty twenty five, so that's not insignificant.
But if we do it in the nineties, seven dollars
in nineteen ninety has the same buying power as seventeen
forty five in twenty twenty twenty five. So either way,

(53:50):
that does seem like a good daily rate to be
making for Shila. Did you get different numbers? Uh?

Speaker 1 (53:57):
Well, I got the same for I just did nineteen
ninety seventeen dollars and I did nineteen seventy four, just
kind of guessing what year, and that was forty five,
so right around the same. But then I'm thinking, okay, okay,
which one supports the more likely timeline? Would seventeen dollars
be more appropriate or forty five? I mean, forty five

(54:18):
is yeah, more appropriate. But also that's a lot of
money for Shila for three weeks, so a.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
Lot, I don't know a lot. It's only about like
a dollar an hour, yeah, But I mean, to be
making money on vacation is not that bad. And also
I was looking at my copy of fudge Mania, which
I think is maybe a nineteen ninety copy, and my

(54:46):
copy costs three ninety nine. So you babysit for one day.
You have basically one mass market paperback. That's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
I like the calculations sidebar.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Do you will go more in depth thanto this? But
do you remember what you got paid to babysit?

Speaker 1 (55:12):
I think it was four dollars an hour.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
That makes sense with inflation, because I think when I
was Sheila's age, I charged five dollars an hour. Yeah,
so that makes sense. Okay, put a pin in that
we'll come back to that.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Good.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
But that's the deal. And Peter is mad that he's
not going to get paid, and his mom says, rightly, like,
I thought you would be happy to have nothing to
do with this plan. I thought you would be so
happy that everybody leaves you alone for a couple hours.

(55:50):
And he should be, but he's Peter, so he goes
off to start trouble.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
It was my idea, why should I give up half
my money.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Because he's too much for one person to handle.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
I can handle anything, Peter. I'm a very responsible person. Fuggie,
where are you.

Speaker 3 (56:11):
Up here?

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Honey, what are you doing up there?

Speaker 2 (56:16):
He's up in the tree.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Resting.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
A bird always rests after breakfast.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
I've got news for you. You're not a bird.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
I'm practicing for when I grow up.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
You're not going to be a bird when you grow up.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
I know I'm not going to be a bird.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
I'm going to be a bird breather.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
What's a bird breather? Somebody who breathes for birds? I've
never heard of that. People don't breathe for birds. That's
how much you know.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
He means a bird breeder.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Oh, a bird breeder. That makes more sense.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
What makes more sense being a bird breeder?

Speaker 1 (57:07):
What's a breeder? Someone who breeds birds and animals? What's breeds?

Speaker 2 (57:16):
You wanted to be in charge? You answer his questions?

Speaker 1 (57:21):
What's someone who raises animals? Like a dog breeder raises dogs,
and a cat breeder raises cats, and a bird breeder
raises birds, and a baby breeder raises babies. Not exactly
parents raise babies.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
How come baby breeders don't raise babies?

Speaker 1 (57:41):
I don't know. It just doesn't work that way.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
So it also, this is the first I read this
book a million times. This is the first time it
occurs to me that the reason that Peter's laughing is
because that's a sex question. Clever. Uh. So eventually Fudge
jumps off the tree and Sheila's scolding him, and she's
talking about being his babysitter, and he says, I thought

(58:06):
you're going to be my wife, and she says, first,
I'm going to be your babysitter. And if that works out,
we'll talk about the wedding. If that isn't every relationship
I've had in my twenties and thirties.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Oh my god. I bet Judy also was kind of
thinking of her exes when she wrote.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
This, SOO wow, that's actually a great point.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
She knows wild.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
I love that. So then we talk about what everybody's
doing in the afternoon, and Peter has this afternoon to himself,
and so he's thinking about what to do. There's a
good shout out to Gary Paulson, who's another writer. Yeah,
have you read Gary Paulson stuff?

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Just Hatchet, the iconic Hatchet, Love Hatchet.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
I read Hatchet, and then I think at least two
of the other Hatchet books, which are fine. Nothing touches Hatchet,
But I think that was funny, and I meant to
research Judy Bloom's relationship with Gary Paulson, if they were
friends or just contemporaries. But I didn't do that.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
I do love a Judy author shout out, she knows
the good ones. This is I swear gonna be my
last Timeline clue, but I will I will say it
after this chapter, but we'll come back to Gary Paulson.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Okay. Good. So he gets bored. He doesn't want to
read anything. He wants to go bug Sheila and fudge
in there at the beach picking up rocks. Sheila doesn't
want him horning in on her babysitting money, and when
she asks him why he's bugging her, he says, I
spread my arms wide and sang as loud as I could.

(59:48):
Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? And
he said, I learned that song last night from Buzzy
Senior and Grandma. It's called some enchanted Evening. Now, Joe,
do you know what this song is from? Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Yes, my mom my, mom, oh fuck, the one about
oh South Pacific?

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yes, right, I didn't know that until today doing that research,
And it is kind of prescient that just keep this
in your earballs for later but it is kind of
prescient that Buzzy Senior and Muriel are listening to this
song because that particular song in South Pacific is sung
between two people who are they've already been married, they're

(01:00:36):
potentially going on their second marriage and blending families. So
just put that little tidbit in your mind.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Wonder what's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Me too.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
So anyway, they are on the beach and all of
a sudden, missus A calls them in for snacks, and
so they run off to go into a stranger's house. Again,
that's where the chapter ends. Do you have any thoughts
on this chapter? Before I go to my special report, I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Just want to talk about the Gary Paulson thing. So,
I you know, I wanted I knew he had written
other books besides Hatchett, but I didn't know just how
many books he had written. He was very, very prolific,
mostly in the late eighties and nineties. Wow, and Hatchet
was by far his more popular books. So I'm thinking

(01:01:34):
maybe Peter was reading Hatchet, and if so, Hatchet came
out in I believe eighty seven, so it would have
been a couple of years old. Gary Paulson did have
about four books that came out before seventy two if
this takes place in seventy two, but they weren't popular
at all. They're like really hard to find online.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
So interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Just another nudge for nineteen ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
That makes so much much sense. Yeah, the way that
we remember certain Judy descriptions. There's a Gary Paulson book
where he talks about I think it's one of his
adult books, where he's talking about his life in the woods,
and a description of his that keeps in my mind
is he talks about being chased by a moose and

(01:02:21):
he says it was like having a buick mad at you.
I read that when I was like twelve. I'm like,
better remember this forever. The other thing I think, I
think there are two types of kids. I think you
are either a Hatchet kid or you're a My Side

(01:02:41):
of the Mountain kid. And I'm sorry, I'm a My
Side of the Mountain kid. Did you ever read that book? No?

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
I have heard of it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Oh my gosh, Okay, Well, it's really good. I assume
it's a contemporary of Hatchet, but it's a similar story
in that it's a boy that goes out into the wilderness,
but in as opposed to Hatchet, where Hatchet is like
stranded lost style. In Maso the Mountain, this boy lives
in upstate New York and is like, fuck everything, I'm
gonna go live by myself in a tree. So he's

(01:03:13):
more prepared. He's done research, he has tools, and personally
I like that story better because I'm like, ooh, yummy, yummy,
everything organized ya. So bloom bloomheads helped me out here.
Please tell me you've heard of that book and you
have a preference.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Hi, Okay, I'm looking it up. The cover. He's got
like a hawk on his shoulder.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
See it's a peregrine falcon. Yeah, oh my god.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Another bird. Another boy with a bird.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
I will say that is the only that is the
only bird in literature I've ever been like. Okay, birds
are okay, I mean I like that one.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Peregrines are cool. This book looks awesome. It's from nineteen
fifty nine, so oh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
It's even older classic. It's dope. Okay, I'm doing a

(01:04:20):
special report on babysitting. It's gonna be very quick. But
I loved babysitting as a kid, and I got interested
to do this research when I listened to the episode
of the podcast You're Wrong About and this episode is
called Urban Legends Spectacular, and it's older because it's when

(01:04:43):
they had their original set of co hosts. But this
episode talks about specifically the urban legend of sort of
the scary babysitter, like getting high and like putting the
kid in the microwave, or like the spooky story of
like oh did you check on the children? And then
the kid's dead, And so it got me interested in

(01:05:07):
learning about the history of babysitting. And so from what
I've read, which is a lot research that's cribbed from
this book called Babysitting An American History by Miriam forum Brunel,
Babysitting starts as a thing in like the nineteen twenties
and nineteen thirties, because this is the time when more

(01:05:29):
women are working outside of the house. Different things are
happening that are economically that make leisure time possible. They
make it so you don't have to send your kids
to the factories, so kids can have childhoods. And now
that they have childhoods, you have to learn how to
be a good parent, and you also have the research

(01:05:49):
I was reading said there are also new cleanliness standards,
which I thought was a funny concept that like, oh,
you can't just throw your kids in the yard like
you used to be able to. You have to pay
attention to them. You gotta raise them, and you gotta
clean them. Oh so much work. And on top of that, yeah,

(01:06:09):
on top of that, women are making up about twenty
percent of the workforce, so they need help with these kids.
And that's when the term babysitting comes up in about
nineteen thirty. Whoa, And it starts off as being a
job that like teen girls do because it wasn't as
common for girls to be going to school at that age,

(01:06:31):
and just there weren't as many like jobby jobs for
that generation of girls. But as the years go on
into like the forties and fifties and sixties and beyond,
there are more work opportunities for teenage girls in places
like malls, et cetera, that actually pay way better than

(01:06:54):
these babysitting gigs. So eventually teenage girls kind of get
out of this world, and then preteen girls start taking
over these jobs. In the sixties ish the eighties is
also when this sort of anti babysitter especially anti teen

(01:07:15):
babysitter sort of feeling comes around. It's like, if you
hire a teenage girl to be your babysitter, she's gonna
invite her like satanic boyfriend over and they're gonna make
out and kill your kid. So you better hire a
wholesome young babysitter like Sheilah. And that's kind of the
Some people speculate too, that the rise of like anti

(01:07:38):
babysitter bias and like babysitter slasher movies is another way
to shame women for working full time away from their families.
It's like, well, you could have your high power job,
Murphy Brown, but it might mean that your kid's getting
killed while you work, so that sucks. But it insted

(01:08:00):
because ladies like working. But it persisted such as such
a preteen sort of occupation that when the Babysitters Club
books come out in nineteen eighty six, they feature a
cast of preteen protagonists. And I didn't realize this because
I was way young when I was reading those books.
But Christy's supposed to be twelve in the first Baby Club.

(01:08:22):
But they are so young.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
They were twelve for like four books, and then they
turned thirteen forever.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
Yeah, truly, the books stop when they're all fourteen, and
that's so young. It's like, I think there's a John
mulaney joke of it's like letting a horse watch a dog.
Oh that's crazy, Uh, but it happened. And yeah, that's
sort of the end of the special report, except to
say that, like, babysitting is really important because it's such

(01:08:52):
a like intimate labor, Like you're going into people's houses,
and different people have different expectations for what a baby
sitter should and shouldn't do, Like, for example, is your
babysitter also in charge of feeding the dog or sweeping
or making meals or doing all this stuff? Like, it's
really important. Now there's been a big push to potentially

(01:09:13):
have babysitters, unions, contracts with your household babysitter, just all
kinds of stuff to make it really less of a
wishy washy thing because it's a really important piece of labor.
And as we've been talking about with the babysitter to
wife pipeline, it's very easy to abuse labor like that

(01:09:35):
that's so intimate. So have contracts. Yeah, did you babysit ever?

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
Yes, But like I wasn't very good at it. It
was mostly just me, you know, watching TV after the
kids asleep. I have a couple babysitting memories, but I
want to hear yours first.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
I really wanted to be a babysitter when I was
a preteen because I got this terrific book called The
Babysitter's Guide the Care and Keeping of Kids, which was
one of many many seminal books by the American Girl
Doll Press. Holy shit, these books taught me so much.

(01:10:17):
Oh my god, Ugh, I had that book and that
book was so These books were so fucking comprehensive. They
would teach you like little things like basic safety stuff,
but also I remember them teaching you like etiquette stuff.
They said, they had a whole chapter on what you
can and can't do when the baby's asleep, Like I

(01:10:38):
remember distinctly reading, Hey, don't open drawers, weirdo. Don't go
looking at stuff like bring a book, don't be weird.
So shout out to American Girl Doll Press, you the
real one. Between this and the American Girl Doll Book
of Etiquette, you taught me to be the person I

(01:10:58):
am today.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
I am looking at all the covers I was this
is after my time, but wow, a whole this shaped
a whole generation.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
It did, and it was so excellent. And so when
I was that little of a babysitter, I was on it.
I had my book, I had all kinds of stuff.
I did this move that I cribbed from a Did
you ever read the Missus Pigglewiggle series? No?

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Am I outing myself as reading the weirdest young adult
books ever? Oh my god. Okay, well that was another
book series. And in that book series, Missus Pigglewiggle is
a lady that babysits pretty much, and she did this
move with this girl who didn't want to clean her room.
And she said to the girl, when I cleaned my room,

(01:11:47):
I pretend that I'm a princess who's kidnapped by this queen,
and the queen makes me clean this room every day.
And then the queen comes and checks the room. So
let's pretend we're princesses, and let's clean. So you clean, clean, clean,
clean clean, And then Missus Pigglewiggle slash me, as an
eleven year old, would be like, Okay, I'm gonna go

(01:12:10):
get the queen. I would go in another room, put
on an outfit and colme in the room and check
on it and be like, eh, you didn't clean your
bolly puckets. So that was what That's the type of
shit I was pulling when I was eleven and in
people's homes, and I was also eating from their snacks prolifically.

(01:12:33):
Oh yeah, I got to yeah, so yeah, so, And
I said, that's when I was getting paid five dollars
an hour. So I did that like all high school.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
You were going above and beyond and also bringing your
thespian skills to the table. I bet you were the
best babysitter ever.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
I had a good time with it. And I also
want to give credit where credit is due, is I
had a really good babysitter. We had babysitter who would
come every day from when my brother was three till
like we graduated high school. And that is my friend now.
Her name's Pricelda shout out. We used to read fudge
books together. Oh and we're buds now and now we
go to lunch. So I had a good babysitter. I

(01:13:16):
had this book and I just liked it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
That's amazing. I'm also looking at missus Piggle wiggle and
these are obviously like from the fifties, right.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
Yeah, Like I said, I would steal books from my
old teachers, so it's like all their.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Old book The cover that's my favorite is Missus Pigglewiggle,
just like encircled by like twelve heads.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
I don't know if you know that one.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
But I don't know that one, but it sounds ominous. Yeah.
And then when I was in college, I was a
babysitter for three years for this family. After school. I
would pick them up from school and babysit them until
their mom came home and we would play games and
I would I couldn't make up stories to tell them,
so I would tell them stories that I knew, so

(01:14:03):
I would tell them like Greek mythology stories and like
Romeo and Juliet as if I had made them up.
And that was really fun. And now those kids are
in college.

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
Whoa, they're in college.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
Oh yeah, that's my that's my baby sitting history.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
What about you, Well, I you sound like you were
like an A plus plus babysitter. I was probably like
a C minus or a D babysitter. Like I was saying,
I baby said a few times not a ton. It
was mostly just for like my parents' friends kids if
they needed an emergency, last minute stand in or something.

(01:14:46):
It didn't make it a regular thing. But I do
remember fondly my very first babysitting experience. I was I
was like fifth grade, you know, so eleven or no,
not even maybe ten.

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
My friend lived in an apartment building and they were
these rich twins named Sparky and Spencer who lived in
the Penthouse.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Sparky and Spencer. That's a babysitters club kid if I
ever heard one, right, Like, no.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
I wonder what they're doing now.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
But they.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
They were the Penthouse kids, and they had the run
of the apartment building, and we babysat them like once
or twice, and we had no idea what you were doing.
I remember there being something about like like bubble bath
in the hot tub.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
Oh gosh, that's such a sitcom thing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
It really is. And I'm like, did I did that happen?
Or did I dream that? I'll have to double check.
But that was fun. And then when I was older,
there are two babysitting moments that stuck with me. One
was I was watching this brother and sister and the
sister Emily. She locked herself in the bathroom with a

(01:15:57):
jar of olives and ate the entire jar and I
couldn't do anything about it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
Did she get sick?

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
I don't remember, but I just like, I was like,
who likes olives? And then what seven year old likes
olives this much?

Speaker 2 (01:16:16):
But honestly, that sounds like a Friday night to me.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
Ah, I don't think I was ever asked back to
sit for them. And then another one this is I've okay,
I've never told anyone this, but I'm gonna tell the
world now. Enough time has passed. So one time I
was babies. I was probably like twelve or thirteen, and

(01:16:43):
I was babysitting another kid. I don't even remember who
it was, but I had to poop. The toilet wouldn't flush.
Oh no, So I fished the poop out with like
the cup that was in the bathroom and then I
flushed it down another toilet and everything was fine. And

(01:17:05):
I remember, like, you know, in my little mind, I
was like cleaning out the cup. I should have put
it in the dishwasher, but then I should.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
Have put it in the incinerator.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
I know it should have been cast far far away
and like it was just the most harrowing experience. And
I had this whole plan that if they like smelled
the cup or something, I was gonna blame it on
the kid. But no one ever said anything. I never

(01:17:41):
heard anything about it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
So to this day, I'm like, the whole family got ecali,
but they're all dead. Oh that's so funny. Oh yeah,
that wasn't in the baby sitting book I read. They
didn't tell you what to happen, what to do.

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
That was so much much worse than don't open drawers. Weirdough.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
Hey, we probably don't need to say this, but just
in case, if you, Leah should do be in the toilet,
don't put it in a reusable cup, get a hanger
or something and break it up. Don't like carry it
finding memo style from room to room. Oh poor thing.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
Oh god, that's disgusting and evil. So I was so ashamed.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
Still, no, no, no, no, no, truly, let he among
us who has not done a bathroom thing that they
regret be the first to throw the turd. Okay, I'm
just gonna say right now, so don't be shamed.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
You're a Thank you, Thank you so much. This has
been therapy. Bloomheads, let us know if you've done a
weird bathroom thing. That's that's a good topic.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
Yeah, let us know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
Okay, well is that the end of the episode. It's like, okay,
same here. Oh this has been so much fun. Thank
you bluemheads for joining us, Thank you Mollie for being awesome,
and thank you Judy for writing such a good book.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
Bye.