Betsy is thrilled to discover that Joe wants to correspond with her during the summer prior to their senior year in high school. He is working for the Minneapolis Tribune and his coolness toward Betsy seems to have vanished. Soon they are writing to one another regularly, with Betsy sealing her letters with scented sealing wax and saving Joe’s letters and newspaper clippings in a cigar box. Betsy begins to cautiously assume that they will go together this year. Finally!

Joe visits Betsy immediately upon his return to Deep Valley. He is warmly welcomed by the Rays, all of whom notice the spark between Betsy and Joe. The good vibes continue when school starts, and in a surprising moment, Tony nominates Joe for class president. When he wins, Joe begins to participate in the social side of school — Betsy’s world — for the first time.

Like Joe, Tony’s feelings for Betsy have also intensified this year. Betsy finds herself being wooed romantically by both of them. Worried about Tony’s wild streak and unwilling to cut him loose, but possessing romantic feelings only for Joe, she tries to divide her time between the two of them. This works, for a while. The boys do their best to treat Betsy and one another with respect. But when Betsy agrees to go with Tony to the elegant, formal New Year’s Eve dance at the Moorish Cafe, Joe loses patience with the situation and informs Betsy that “all bets are off” (p. 149, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1996).

In the early 1900s, women did not have as many romantic options as they have today. It would have been frowned upon — really almost unthinkable — to ask a man out, or even to hint too strongly for an invitation. So while Betsy could have handled the Joe vs. Tony situation better (as Julia informs her later in the book), she did not have much decision-making power. As women made gains in the workplace throughout the century, their romantic power increased as well. While pay equity and equality are still not a fact of life in the digital age, women certainly have more social capital than in 1910, and can control their own destiny to a greater extent.

Betsy and Joe reconnect when she stops by Willard’s Emporium in Butternut Center following a spring sojourn to the Beidwinkles’ farm. In a neat bookend to their first meeting at the beginning of Heaven to Betsy, Betsy strides into the general store to buy gifts for her family, and as she confidently engages Joe in conversation, his steely demeanor melts. They share a picnic lunch, Betsy meets Joe’s Uncle Alvin and Aunt Ruth, and when Joe brings her back to the Beidwinkles’, he is invited to a party they are having that night at which Betsy will play the organ and sing. Their joy is palpable, and remains such when they return to school.

Following Betsy’s rejection of his romantic overtures, and insistence that they are better suited as sibling-like friends, Tony leaves Deep Valley abruptly, worrying everybody. It turns out that he has gone to New York to try his hand as a stage actor, with Mrs. Poppy’s help and connections. Meanwhile, Betsy and Joe finally become a bona fide couple, deliriously happy.

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For more on dating and romance in Betsy’s era, see: Beth L. Bailey. 1989. From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America. Johns Hopkins University Press. https://www.amazon.com/Front-Porch-Back-Seat-Twentieth-Century/dp/0801839351

In Betsy and Joe, Tib and Betsy begin to worry about Tacy’s marital prospects. She has never exalted over the boys at school. She is uninterested in adopting the latest hairstyles, preferring coronet braids, and refuses to adopt a beauty routine. She is content considering boys to be good friends, even longtime friend Tom Slade, who seems to be interested in her.

One day, Mr. Ray starts telling stories about a salesman who has talked him into stocking a line of knitwear at Ray’s Shoe Store. He claims that this salesman, Mr. Kerr, can talk anyone into anything. Apparently, Mr. Kerr is a quite an impressive man, and Bob Ray wants him to meet the family, so he invites him to Sunday night lunch at the Ray house.

When Mr. Kerr arrives, he seems quite old to Betsy and the Crowd. It turns out that he is 27, 9 to 10 years older than Betsy and her friends. This might otherwise be immaterial, except that he takes an immediate liking to Tacy. Tacy and Mr. Kerr spend the party deep in conversation and give one another their exclusive, undivided attention all night. Betsy immediately notices that Tacy does not seem her usual bashful self. She is animated, relaxed, comfortable.

What does this mean? Does Tacy consider him a father figure? Apparently not. Tacy refers to him as Harry…and on the way out, Harry informs Mr. Ray that he intends to marry Tacy. He steals the prettiest picture of Tacy from Betsy’s photo album, and it occurs to Betsy that something serious could be brewing.

Newly turned 18, Tacy will be the unlikely first girl in the Crowd to establish a romantic connection so serious that marriage is implicated. In 1910, the median age of first marriage was 21.6 for women and 25.1 for men. It dropped steadily until the early 1950s, and then rose to the 2025 levels of 28.6 for women and 30.2 for men. These changes were driven by cultural shifts: women’s relative independence and viability in the workplace, financial considerations, the acceptability of living together in nonmarital configurations.

Mr. Ray warns that if Mr. Kerr can talk him into selling knitwear in his shoe store, he will surely get his way and marry Tacy. Sure enough, Harry Kerr is a presence at Commencement and all the important events to come in Tacy’s life, and they do indeed marry, build a life together, and have children. His support for her is genuine and generous, represented by armfuls of flowers and special attention throughout the important senior year events, and he brings out a new confidence and maturity in Tacy.

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On age of first marriage historically, see: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/statistics-changing-lives-american-women

On the cultural context for age of first marriage, see:

https://www.brides.com/average-age-of-marriage-in-the-us-11709847