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New House, New School, New Friends: Processing Change

The Rays surprise Betsy by moving from Hill Street to a big house on High Street while she is away visiting the Taggart farm. The new house has all the modern conveniences: a gas stove, a furnace, a bathroom! The girls each have their own bedroom.

Betsy feigns happiness, but is miserable. She had loved their small house with its hitching post, proximity to the Big Hill, and, especially, living across the street from Tacy. She had actually loved the coziness of bathing in the kitchen and sleeping in the same bed as Julia. And even Tib has left town; her family has moved back to Milwaukee.

No sooner do the Rays get settled in than Betsy must start high school, which is just two blocks from the new house. She and Tacy begin to familiarize themselves with the school clubs (Zetamathians and Philomathians), customs (back corner assembly seats are the best!) and classes (Latin, algebra, ancient history, composition). New “hired girl” Anna moves in, too, replete with fantastical stories about her prior (possibly fictional?) employers, the McCloskeys. This whirlwind of activity distracts Betsy from her sorrow.

Winona, Carney, Bonnie, Cab, Irma, Larry, Herbert, Tony, and Tom (when he is not away at his military school Cox Military) join Betsy and Tacy in a bustling social group that will become known as “the Crowd.” Their parties and antics will circumscribe Betsy’s life in the high school books, even as the group expands, contracts, and changes over the years. Betsy is excited to see that Joe Willard also goes to her high school. But he doesn’t seem to socialize or to want to join a Crowd; it turns out that he is an orphan, has a job after school, and needs the money. And after their chemistry-filled meet-cute at his family’s store at the end of summer, he’s now barely acknowledging Betsy.

Personal and societal change is a historical constant, of course, in which technology has always played a large part. Many aspects of life in the digital age, from work to play to love and leisure, are marked by rapid, disruptive, ever-accelerating technological change. Every social institution has been transformed by technology, from the family to education to religion to the government. And the Betsy-Tacy series demonstrates that this has always been the case. In Heaven to Betsy we see the impact of technological change on one small group of Midwesterners, and one young woman in particular, as more modern conveniences (telephones, gas stoves, automobiles, better hair curlers!) become a part of her everyday life, and she feels her life expand in previously unimaginable ways.

Betsy must process some of life’s many upheavals in this book. While she resists new things and new ways at first, she will soon come to realize their value. She will make some strikingly bold moves of her own in the years to come, including changing her religion, dropping out of college, and traveling the world, largely on her own. The theme of coping with change will be a recurrent one in the series. As the epigraph to Heaven to Betsy, a quote from Henry W. Longfellow, poignantly states, “All things must change. To something new, to something strange.”

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On the varied impacts of digitality and technological change on community, society, and self, see: Mary Chayko. 2021. Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life. (3rd edition, SAGE) https://collegepublishing.sagepub.com/products/superconnected-the-internet-digital-media-and-techno-social-life-3-259314

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Betsy Travels to Milwaukee

In Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy experiences a growing sense of dissatisfaction with herself. She wishes she were more popular with boys in a romantic sense (though they flock to her house for food, song, and fun). She wishes she were more like Julia, an effortless flirt with whom boys regularly fall in love. When she confesses this to Tacy, Tacy is displeased, for she doesn’t like to see Betsy criticized, “even by Betsy herself” (p. 96, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1994).

Betsy has become attracted to Phil Brandish, a wealthy newcomer in town who doesn’t seem to know that she exists. If she could were fascinating and exotic, she figures, maybe he would notice her. It seems to Betsy that the best way to accomplish this would be to go out of town for a while and return different, with a fascinating new look and personality. As luck would have it, she is invited by the Mullers to visit Tib in Milwaukee for two weeks over the Christmas holiday, and Betsy eagerly accepts, even though it means spending Christmas away from her family.

Betsy travels from Deep Valley to Milwaukee by train, and is delighted by the experience. The early 1900s were a peak period for train travel in America; it was the primary means of transportation across great distances. Trains were dependable, comfortable, and fast, able to attain speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, and could offer amenities like the fancy dining car with white linen tablecloths that Betsy enjoyed. Throughout the 1900s, the rise of the automobile and airplane decentered the train as a means of transportation. Many train lines were discontinued and many others fell into disrepair. The rise of Amtrak, beginning in the 1970s, ushered in the current period of the standardization and reinvention of train travel.

Betsy opens a letter from Tacy on the train in which Tacy expresses her joy that Betsy is on such an exciting adventure and will soon see Tib. Betsy has the sudden realization that while Tacy’s large family cannot provide the same kind of experiences for their children as the Rays can, Tacy is never envious of Betsy’s good fortune. She is, quite simply, a wonderful person. This was the first time that the maturing Betsy “had ever consciously estimated her friend” (p. 115, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1994).

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On the history of train travel, see: https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/early-twentieth-century-railroads.htm

On the more recent history of train travel and Amtrak, see: https://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/decline-of-railroads.htm

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Betsy Reinvents Herself

Betsy and Tib are joyfully reunited in Milwaukee. Two weeks in Christmas with Tib’s family is a perfect time for her to reinvent herself, Betsy decides. She wants to return to Deep Valley different somehow. Perhaps she can become more worldly and sophisticated, and maybe even attract the interest of Phil Brandish.

Most of the trip flies by before Betsy gets started on her reinvention. She enjoys becoming immersed in German-American culture: roving groups of singers and musicians, a visit to Grosspapa and Grossmama’s, the arrival of the Christkindel, the painting of the seven dwarf statues. Between the customs and all the parties, she hasn’t had the time, and isn’t particularly inclined, to execute a dramatic life change; in fact, she realizes that she is being more like herself than ever! New Year’s Eve, though, proves the perfect time and opportunity, and Tib agrees to stay up all night assisting with the project.

In the digital age, social media is often used as a means of self-expression and experimentation. Some people “try on” different personas for different spaces and audiences online, although it is common to do this offline as well. Digital technology makes it relatively easy to visually hide, and to play around with identity. Of course, this is not always a playful endeavor. Our modern digital age has seen a dramatic increase in technology-assisted identity theft, deception, stalking, scams, and other dangerous acts.

Betsy and Tib approach her experiment jovially but with an element of seriousness as well. When Betsy plans something, she expects results. She selects a new target personality (Dramatic and Mysterious, as opposed to Ethereal and Intellectual), hairstyle (pompadour), perfume (Jockey Club), color (green), walk (a stoop), and voice (low and sultry) to go along with it. She even changes the spelling of her name from Betsy to Betsye. She and Tib plan how she to introduce the new Betsye upon her return home. Tib reveals the possibility that her family may move back to Deep Valley someday, and the girls devise a silly persona for Tib as well.

Unsurprisingly, Betsy will find it difficult to pull off this transformation. She tries valiantly, and attracts Phil Brandish’s attention, but tends to slip back into her own ways when in the comfortable company of her family and friends. “Betsye” will complicate her burgeoning relationship with Phil, and teach her a thing or two about authenticity in relationships and in life.

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On the transformation of identity in digital spaces, and some of the dangers inherent in digital communication, see: Mary Chayko. 2021. Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life (3rd Edition, SAGE) https://collegepublishing.sagepub.com/products/superconnected-the-internet-digital-media-and-techno-social-life-3-259314

and

Mary Chayko, 2018. Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness. (SUNY Press) https://sunypress.edu/Books/P/Portable-Communities2

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The Saga of Okto Delta

Julia has started college at the state university in Minneapolis, and her most cherished goal is to be accepted into the Epsilon Iota sorority. Though only a small fraction of the student body belongs to sororities, and Mr. Ray is unimpressed with them, Julia becomes obsessed with joining one. She shares the glories of sororities with the family: parties, living in the sorority house, sisterhood. She makes sorority life sound so exciting and full of fun that it gives Betsy an idea. She and the girls in the Crowd will start their own Deep Valley High School sorority.

This becomes the primary social preoccupation of Betsy’s junior year in high school, mostly because Joe Willard begun courting Phyllis Brandish. Betsy had planned to go with Joe this year, and is stunned by the news that he is unavailable. A sorority is the perfect antidote, so she, Tacy, and Tib plan rituals and activities to transform the girls in the Crowd into a sorority that they will call Okto Delta (Eight Devils).

Sororities and fraternities developed in the mid-1800s as a way for college students to learn together about a wider range of topics than could be studied in the classroom. Initiation rites were modeled after classic communal groups including the ancient Greeks and Romans. Now called Greek life, many sorority members can live together in chapter houses and their operations include a full slate of philanthropic, social, and recreational activities. Modern sororities use social media and technology to assist with recruitment, share word of their events, and raise money.

Okto Delta inspires the boys in Betsy’s high school Crowd to develop a companion fraternity, Omega Delta, although Tony refuses to join and becomes sidelined a bit from the Crowd this year (taking up with some of his wilder friends and even a “perfectly awful girl” – p. 229, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1995). The two groups enjoy a full slate of gatherings during the year until it becomes apparent that other high schoolers besides Tony are finding the groups to be exclusionary and a bit snobbish as well. Their members miss out on social invitations and key school committee assignments and Betsy is not asked to compete in the year-end Essay Contest. Lesson learned, everyone is rather relieved when the groups disband.

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On the history of sororities and fraternities, see: https://fsl.appstate.edu/history-of-greek-life

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Margaret’s Party

Betsy adores her younger sister, Margaret, but does not really spend much time with her. Margaret is six years younger, quiet and reserved, and tends to keep to herself, preferring the company of her dog, Abie, and her cat, Washington, to a circle of friends like Betsy’s. When Margaret asks Betsy to help her throw a birthday party for the animals, Betsy is delighted to be asked, and Margaret is thrilled that Betsy has agreed.

They decide to hold the party on the Thursday in February between Abrahan Lincoln’s and George Washington’s (the animals’ namesakes) birthdays. Betsy plans decorations and a feast. But then she mostly puts the party out of her mind. When Thursday arrives, she is late coming home, having stopped at Heinz’s after school with Tib, Cab, and Dennie. When she arrives, the house is dark and somber, and Margaret can not be immediately located.

Betsy finds Margaret sobbing in her room. She had begun the party festivities without Betsy, and had attempted to light the gas stove herself. It exploded, burning and curling Margaret’s eyelashes. Luckily, her vision seems unimpaired. Lighting a gas stove of that era was a manual process, one that could be quite dangerous, especially for a ten-year-old girl.

Betsy prepares dinner and bakes a cake for Abie and Washington, but is shaken, “her conscience aching” (p. 189, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1994). She had intended to step into Julia’s shoes, once Julia left for college, and be the exemplary older sister. She realizes that she has failed, and that Margaret could have paid the price with her vision. On her knees, she promises God that she will never neglect Margaret again.

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On the gas stoves of the early 1900s, see: https://evolutionhomeappliances.weebly.com/kitchen-stoves-1900-1919-steel-gas–electricity.html, especially the units at the bottom of the page

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Betsy, Tony, and Joe – Senior Year

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

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Mr. Kerr Falls For Tacy

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
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Betsy’s College Experiment

Betsy enrolls at the University of Minnesota in 1910. Interestingly, it was not that uncommon for women to enroll in college at that time. Men and women of that era went to college in roughly equal numbers. Male enrollments reached a high point in the late 1940s, as GIs returned from World War II. Overall enrollment numbers continued to rise to the current day, and as increasing numbers of young women began to expect to participate in the workforce, female enrollments began to outpace male enrollments.

In her freshman year, Betsy suffers a serious attack of appendicitis, and spends much of that year in California, recuperating at her grandmother’s home. She does lots of writing and her stories begin to sell. “I found myself out there,” Betsy later decides (p. 15, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1996). But she misses out on almost an entire year of college, and when she returns to the U the next year, she is still considered a freshman.

Officially a freshman, while Joe and her other friends are sophomores, the year goes by quickly. Betsy is writing for the school magazine and serving as Women’s Editor of the school newspaper. One of her stories seems especially good, and one of the college’s more famous and well known professors writes her a letter of encouragement. Betsy’s interest in math and science, never strong, suffers as her writing improves.

The next year, Joe receives a scholarship and transfers to Harvard, and Betsy loses interest in academics altogether. She also begins a relationship with fellow student Bob Barhydt, which begins as an innocent flirtation but becomes somewhat more exclusive, as several photos in the school yearbook document. Joe sees these pictures, and his letters to Betsy grow “cold as ice” (p. 17, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1996). Joe spends no time with Betsy that summer. It seems his love is now ice cold as well.

Betsy’s father sees Betsy’s unhappiness and how little she is getting out of college. He and Betsy have a frank talk in which he expresses to her that while he generally advises that a person finish what they start, it is also good to know when to make a break from something that isn’t working, and go in a different direction. He is talking about education, not Joe, but for Betsy, his words may represent an opportunity to heal her heart.

There are many paths to education, Mr. Ray declares. He presents Betsy with a breathtaking offer: she could drop out of school and take a trip overseas similar to the one that Julia had taken. It would be a broadening experience for a writer, he says. Betsy, who has always wanted to travel (although with Tacy — who is now married and unavailable!), is gratified. She agrees to go, accompanied, initially, by professor friends of Mr. Ray’s brother, who are brother and sister. Betsy suggests that she spend significant periods of time in just a few cities, rather than traveling around constantly. It would be good experience, she thinks, for a writer to become deeply immersed in a few new cultures.

As the plan takes shape, Betsy’s time in college comes to an end, and her venture into the Great World begins.

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On gendered college enrollment trends, see: https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/course131/gkk_jep.pdf

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Crossing the Atlantic

Betsy leaves for Europe on the ocean liner S.S. Columbic, which will take her and her traveling companions, the Wilsons, to Genoa, where she will transfer to Munich. Immediately she becomes homesick and heartsick, for she catches a glimpse of Joe covering the ship’s departure for the newspaper, though they do not cross paths. She will be reminded of Joe constantly on her travels; it is obvious that she is still very much in love with him.

Betsy disguises her sadness as seasickness and spends a day or so in her cabin, in bed, miserable. But soon her instinct for companionship and adventure beckons, and she avails herself of ship events (dinners, dances, strolls on deck) and excursions (Madeira, the Azores, Algiers). Before long she has met Taylor and Rosa, actual ladies’ maids, like the ones she has written about; the ebullient Mr. O’Farrell, who looks like her favorite singer Chauncey Olcott; a great new friend from Toronto named Maida; and the famous author Mrs. Main-Whittaker.

The early 1900s represented a kind of golden age of translatlantic ocean travel. Ocean liners were spacious, loaded with amenities, and could accommodate over 1,000 travelers. Most trips overseas took a little less than a week. By the 1950s, ocean liners became rare due to the rise of air travel, and the now super-popular cruise ship industry was born.

Dinner conversations on the ocean liner range from art to music to a women’s right to vote. Mr. O’Farrell is shocked that sweet Betsy considers herself a suffragette. “We’re having a suffrage parade in Minneapolis this spring,” she says. “I’d be marching if I were there.”

“But you’re not a militant?” O’Farrell responds. Betsy isn’t sure that she would characterize herself such. But she knows that she would never back down when presented with such a challenge as voting rights. “I would be if I had to be,” she declares (p. 73, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1996).

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On the ocean liner as a primary means of transportation, see: https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter1/emergence-of-mechanized-transportation-systems/liner-transatlantic-crossing-time/

For an interesting depiction of life on a translatlantic ocean liner in Betsy’s era, see: https://www.ggarchives.com/OceanTravel/TravelGuide/31-WhatToExpectOnYourVoyage.html

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Proposal, Engagement, Wedding, Honeymoon

The S.S. Richmond sails into New York City’s inner harbor in September of 1917, signaling the end of Betsy’s travels abroad, and Joe is there to meet her. They reunite ecstatically, rushing into one another’s arms, and their future is immediately sealed, all past slights forgotten. They spend the day touring the city and buying a wedding ring at Tiffany’s, and Joe proposes in a small Greenwich Village restaurant. “Love me always, Betsy!” he cries. “I have given my whole heart to you” (p. 23, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1996).

Joe quits his job in Boston and packs up his life to return to Minneapolis, for Betsy does not want to leave her family so soon after a year away. He returns within a week, expecting to find a job at one of the city newspapers, but without one immediately available, takes a position working for the Hawthorne Publicity Bureau. He asks Mr. Ray for Betsy’s hand in marriage, and it is decided that Betsy and Joe will marry the very next day, which will give them three days for a honeymoon before Joe starts his new job that Monday.

A small home wedding is hastily arranged, complete with a store-bought dress for Betsy, a cake homemade by Anna, and a bridal bouquet of pink roses and blue forget-me-nots. Small home weddings were common in 1917, usually held in the afternoon, followed by refreshments, as with this wedding. The dress was often simple and flowing, and the wedding ring was often a simple gold band, just like Betsy’s. In the modern era, weddings are likely to be customized to reflect the tastes and budget of the bride and groom and their families, with a wide range of ways to celebrate, including destination weddings, avant-garde gatherings, elopements, and commitment ceremonies that do not constitute an official wedding.

After so many years of loving him (p. 57, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1996), Betsy and Joe are married in front of the Ray fireplace. Tacy and Harry Kerr, who have married and are expecting a baby, loan Betsy and Joe their cottage on Lake Minnetonka for a honeymoon, and Betsy and Joe spend a few idyllic days planning their life. It’s a simple but perfect beginning to what will be a rewarding but challenging first year of marriage.

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For more on weddings in Betsy’s era, see: https://bungalowclub.org/newsletter/spring-2019/now-join-hands/

For more on modern weddings, see https://www.courtly.com/resources/wedding-ettiquette