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Julia’s Voyage

Julia’s first year at the University is tumultuous. She enjoys her classes and is excited to hopefully pledge the Epsilon Iota sorority. As always, she attracts the attention of several devoted young men whose hearts she will surely break. But music is Julia’s first love, and alongside her family, her truest. She aspires to be an opera singer like her idol Geraldine Farrar, and knows that while she can pursue it after college, she really should be starting younger than that. And a university is no substitute for study abroad.

When Julia suffers the indignity of being blackballed by the sorority, Mr. and Mrs. Ray plot an alternate path for her musical exploration. They offer to send her abroad to London, Rome, Paris, and Berlin, a year of study with well-renowned singing, acting, and language teachers. She would have to forego a year at the University.

While the relative wealth of the Deep Valley families is not explicitly discussed in the Betsy-Tacy series, the Rays’ offer is a clear indication of a certain financial status. The Kellys would certainly not be able to send their children on such a trip; the Mullers would seem to have the means. But owning his own shoe store, Mr. Ray is able to provide such an arrangement for Julia (and presumably his other daughters as well; we will see Betsy go overseas later in the series). Then, as now, a trip of this magnitude would be a substantial investment. Anything transatlantic would have to be traveled by ocean liner.

For Julia, there is no question but that she will accept her family’s generous offer. Immediately, University life pales into significance. Julia no longer cares about sorority life, will not return to the U, and, in fact, will go on to sing professionally, an uncommon career path at the time, especially for a woman. She will take the family “with her” overseas via a steady stream of letters, gifts, and stories, and will inspire Betsy’s own international travel in Betsy and the Great World.

— For more on Geraldine Farrar, see: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geraldine-Farrar

— For a brief look at travel throughout the ages, see: https://www.travelandleisure.com/what-travel-looked-like-decades-5439741

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Betsy and Phil

Betsy’s new “Dramatic and Mysterious” identity, capped off by her re-branding as “Betsye,” captures the interest of Deep Valley High School heartthrob Phil Brandish. Phil is different from the boys in Betsy’s Crowd. He is new to town and a bit standoffish; he prefers to spend time with girls one on one than in groups. He even drives his own red auto! The girls in the Crowd peg him as a real catch.

Phil invites Betsy to the school dance and what Betsy later refers to as her first real love affair commences. Walking home from the dance, Phil tries to hold her hand. Betsy is unnerved; Julia had warned her that Phil might try to act “spoony.” Betsy puts a stop to Phil’s bold gesture, and Phil laughs, but kindly. The love affair is off to a solid, appropriate start.

Sexual attitudes have been among the biggest social changes in the last hundred or so years. In 1900, only about 6% percent of American women had engaged in premarital sex by the age of 19. That percentage is much higher today and has even been estimated to be over 70%, especially when a wide range of types of sexual behaviors are considered. Technological changes, such as contraception and increased access to information, are largely responsible for new sexual norms and attitudes. In Betsy’s day and environment, even kissing was reserved for the most serious of premarital relationships. And for the most part, only heterosexual relationships could be acknowledged publicly, due to the pathologizing and criminalization of homosexual activity of the time.

Betsy is careful to make sure that Phil never sees her silly, fun-loving side. She predicts, correctly, that he will neither understand nor appreciate it. After he observes her singing a raucous song parody that she invented about his red automobile, however, he becomes cold and distant, even though she tells him that she had devised the song long before they had become a couple. Betsy realizes that he really doesn’t know her, and also, that he doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.

Still, it hurts when they break it off, which unfortunately happens the night before the annual Essay Contest, in which Betsy is again facing Joe Willard. Betsy must compete after a sleepless, tear-filled night, and, once again, she loses to Joe. But she is heartened that she had done her best this time, as opposed to her lackluster freshman year effort, and that she had only lost the love of someone who did not know her. For he had only known “Betsye.”

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On the history of premarital sex, see: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/shame-game-one-hundred-years-economic-model-rise-premarital-sex-and-its-de

On historical trends in homosexuality in Minnesota, see Paige Daniels’ Hamline University departmental honors project: https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=dhp

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Betsy, Tony, and Joe – Freshman Year

Betsy experiences her first two big crushes in Heaven to Betsy. Both Tony and Joe will intrigue her and to some extent compete for her throughout the high school books. When Betsy meets Joe Willard at Butternut Center, she is immediately taken with his wit and good looks. But when Betsy first encounters Tony Markham at the Christian Endeavor social hour sponsored by the town’s Presbyterian church (presided over by Betsy’s new friend Bonnie Andrews), she is thunderstruck. He is charming, handsome, cool, slightly older, and new in town: the epitome of the “Tall, Dark Stranger” that she had dreamed of someday meeting.

When Tony visits the Ray house, he is warmly welcomed and feels instantly at home. Tony and Julia sing duets around the piano; with Herbert and Cab, he becomes a fixture in the kitchen, especially at Sunday Night Lunch; and perhaps most endearingly, Tony and Betsy’s younger sister Margaret become fast friends. Soon, Tony is all that Betsy can think about. But Tony only sees Betsy as a sister; his romantic feelings are for Bonnie. Betsy’s heart breaks time and again throughout the book as she tries and fails to get him to notice her as more than a friend.

Teenage romance was a prevalent theme in the young adult literature of the 1940s-1960s. Popular novelists of the era, including Rosamond duJardin, Betty Cavanna, Anne Emery, Beverly Clearly, and Janet Lambert created evocative, finely drawn worlds in which heroines experienced a (usually chaste) love for the very first time. Often in series format, these books offered their young readers a glimpse of a slightly more adult life toward which they might aspire. Maud Hart Lovelace’s realistic and heart-wrenching portrayals of teenage love, friendship, and growth place her among the most important of these wonderful authors.

Betsy, Tony, and Joe will cross paths often through the high school books. Betsy’s tempestuous crush on Tony is most prominent in this book, while her feelings for Joe develop more slowly and gradually throughout the remainder of the series. Betsy and Joe have more in common than Betsy and Tony, which turns out to matter! They share a love of writing and literature and ideas, and are selected as the freshman class representatives to compete in the important year-end Essay Contest.

Betsy spends more time at parties than she does at the library reading about the present and future value of the Phillipines, the topic on which she must become expert for the contest. When Joe offers to walk Betsy home after a study session in the library, and even suggests that he might share some of what he has learned about the Phillipines, he is rebuffed when Tony arrives to walk her home. This is not the first time that Joe and Betsy have crossed signals, and it won’t be the last.

To Betsy’s dismay, Tony’s intentions toward Betsy still aren’t romantic; Cab and Herbert join them for the goofy, rambunctious walk home. And soon Betsy will realize that her feelings for Tony are nothing more than friendship as well, and that she allowed her social life to thoroughly displace academics this year. Betsy loses handily to Joe in the Essay Contest, and with overwhelming regret, vows that she will prioritize her writing going forward….a critical step into a more fulfilling future.

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For an overview of teen romance novelists of the era, see Carolyn Steele Agosta’s blog: https://www.carolynsteeleagosta.com/post/sweet-teen-romance-novels-1940s-1960s#:~:text=A%20few%20other%20popular%20authors,them%20humiliating%20and%20’mushy’.

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Christmas Shopping

In Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, we learn that for a few years now, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib have been going Christmas shopping together on the first day of Christmas vacation. Their shopping trips are loaded with traditions; chiefly, that while they visit many stores, they do not purchase anything until the very end. This year, they invite friend and occasional adversary Winona Root to join them, and they share and explain (and require compliance with) every tradition along the way. Winona is prominent in Downtown, inviting Betsy, Tacy, and Tib to the theater, joining them at a fancy party at Mrs. Poppy’s, and surreptitiously arranging to have one of Betsy’s poems published in her father’s newspaper.

The shopping expedition lays bare the girls’ vivid imaginations. They do not allow their meager funds (ten cents apiece) to constrain their fun, for until they arrive at the last store on their list, they do not shop to buy. They shop to shop! They approach this rather like “window shopping,” except that as they venture through Deep Valley’s bookstores, toy stores, and department stores, they examine and handle the merchandise that appeals to them. Tib even sits atop a seven-foot wooden horse. They then each select one item at each store– not to buy, but simply to select! Then they explain and defend their choice to the others, and have fun imagining its use.

With the advent of online shopping, or e-commerce, it is common and easy for an online shopper to click through many stores and items before choosing what will be purchased. The process can certainly take hours, as does the girls’ shopping trip. But generally, online shoppers shop to eventually BUY, and at a consistently increasing pace and volume. In 2025, online buyers spend an average of $5381 in the United States, while by 2026 that amount will likely rise to over $7000, and will surely continue to increase in the future. Even allowing for inflation (ten cents in 1907 would be worth about $3.42 in 2025), that’s a lot more spending than our four girls are prepared to do!

They do make a purchase at their final stop, though; a ten-cent Christmas ornament to adorn their respective trees, which will become a fine collection over the years as the tradition is faithfully repeated year to year. Nothing, Tacy explains, “is so much like Christmas as a Christmas-tree ornament,” while Tib adds, with her usual sensible perspective, “You get a lot for ten cents” (p. 126, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993). Given a multi-hour shopping trip, ice cream treats provided at the end of the day by their fathers, and the recommendations that some of the shop clerks will make to the girls’ parents when they embark on their Christmas shopping, that seems inarguable.

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For some e-commerce shopping statistics, see: https://www.yaguara.co/online-shopping-statistics/

An inflation calculator: https://www.in2013dollars.com/

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Crowning the Queen of Summer

Betsy, Tacy, Tib, Julia, and Katie decide to crown a Queen of the neighborhood to highlight the advent of summer. Tib and Julia are selected candidates for Queen, and they all spiritedly set out to acquire the votes of their neighbors. It turns out to be the biggest quarrel that the group of five would ever endure, for it turns out that Julia and Katie had solicited votes at the Ice Cream Social, which the younger girls did not attend, while Betsy, Tacy, and Tib had scoured Little Syria for votes, which the older girls are adament must be disallowed. These inequities give way to a full-blown battle, which gets tearful and personal, especially between Julia and Betsy.

Amidst the turmoil, the younger girls’ sojourns to Little Syria come to light. Their families had not known that they had made several trips there and had become so friendly with Naifi and her family and community. They are surprised and shocked that the girls had been so welcomed warmly and embraced by the Syrians; they had been rather apprehensive of their unfamiliar customs and ways. There is some discussion as to whether Arabic signatures on votes should be counted.

In the digital era, the internet and social media readily enable the spread of information about people who hail from different areas of the world, and their norms and culture. Still, there is no shortage of fear of those who are come from faraway places or are different in some way. Some of this is due to ethnocentrism: in general, people are most comfortable within the world which they have always inhabited. But to refuse to learn about and appreciate other cultures, to reject outright people and artifacts that seem different and strange, is a response as common today as it was then. It makes this story all the more remarkable.

Julia and Tib express no further appetite to be coronated given the distress that it is causing. Betsy and Julia make up, and the families decide that they want to learn more about the Syrian community in their midst and the little girl who, it turns out, would have been an actual princess (emeera) in Syria. Thrilled to learn this, the girls unanimously decide to crown Naifi Queen of Summer. Naifi’s family agrees that she can be so coronated, with the understanding that it be made clear to all attending that they are determined to become assimilated American citizens who are eager to learn and adopt American ways. Accordingly, the coronation features copious American flags, Katie’s recitation of the Gettysburg address, and Julia singing the Star Spangled Banner, while Naifi arrives resplendent in the chiffon, cashmere, and jewelry of her native country. A rousing time was had by all.

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For more on the real-life Little Syria and its depiction in this book, see the sources cited in the prior post on this page, Befriending and Defending Naifi.

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Befriending and Defending Naifi

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib discover a small immigrant community called Little Syria while exploring the Big Hill. One day, they meet and become friendly with a young girl from the community named Naifi.

Naifi does not speak English, and dresses and acts differently than the girls who live in Betsy’s neighborhood. She seems excitable, Betsy observes, and quite “darling” (p. 51, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993). They invite her to join their picnic, the girls begin to learn one a few words in one another’s languages, and they all just generally have a wonderful time. It is, they acknowledge, the oddest but most enjoyable picnic that they can remember.

It is difficult to know the precise number of immigrants, Syrian or otherwise, in the United States at any given point in time, but it is estimated that approximately 200,000 Syrians fleeing unrest had come to the United States by 1920, and that perhaps 100,000 have been in the U.S. in the 2020s. There was indeed a “Little Syria” of perhaps 2,000 immigrants near Mankato (Deep Valley) during the time period of the Betsy-Tacy series, many of whom were likely Lebanese. In Lovelace’s book Emily of Deep Valley, protagonist Emily Webster works for and with this immigrant community.

One day, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib happen upon a group of boys bullying Naifi — encircling her, calling her names, and pulling her hair. Tib, small but unafraid, steps in immediately to stand between Naifi and her biggest tormenter. Tacy follows bravely, and then Betsy. Order is eventually restored with the arrival of Betsy’s older sister Julia and Tacy’s older sister Katie (who intimidates everybody, apparently!), but not without some upsetting physical moments. Naifi flees, and the girls return home, shaken.

Julia tells Tib’s mother, Mrs. Muller, what happened, and why Tib’s clothes are torn and dirty. They are concerned about Mrs. Muller’s response. But Mrs. Muller, a daughter of immigrants herself, understands. She explains to the girls that the treatment Naifi endured is too often a part of the immigrant experience, and is glad that the girls are unharmed.

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On the Lebanese and Syrians in Maud Hart Lovelace’s books, see Jia Tolentino’s “The Little Syria of Deep Valley” in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/the-little-syria-of-deep-valley

For some statistics and more recent stories of Syrian immigrants, see https://iir.gmu.edu/immigrant-stories-dc-baltimore/syria

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Everything Pudding

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib have many adventures in the early Betsy-Tacy books. They love to climb the Big Hill, and sometimes they pretend to live there. In the first book, Betsy-Tacy, Betsy and Tacy bring their paper dolls “to life,” open a sand store, and turn an old piano box into a play house. In Betsy-Tacy and Tib, they expand industriously on this notion and build a small shelter out of wood in Tib’s basement. It is clear that the girls crave independence; to be as grown up as the actual grownups in their lives will allow.

In this vein, one of their most memorable escapades involves the invention, creation, and consumption of Everything Pudding — a mixture of literally every type of food that they can get their hands on in the kitchen one day. Flush with the excitement of being home alone for an afternoon and being allowed to use the stove and kitchen, the three girls decide that they want to create something extraordinary to eat. They want to make something that no one has ever thought to make before.

Betsy successfully argues (for Tacy and Tib nearly always defer to her stories and schemes) that the more foods that can be included in this dish, the better. So under Tib’s expert direction, they begin stirring together everything that they can find (bacon grease, sugar, milk, flour, raisins, coffee, tea, cornstrach, gelatine, soda, spices, an egg expertly broken by Tib) in a frying pan. Betsy dubs the concoction Everything Pudding, and they bravely serve it up and eat half a plate each. They toss the rest, and of course, feel quite ill later that night.

Cooking is a fun activity for children of any age! At the age of eight (the girls’ age in this book), children can begin following simple recipes, making salads, heating things up, and helping to plan the family meal. It’s a tactile, low-tech way to involve modern children in something fun, productive, and communal. It is also a great alternative to the increasingly common practice of children spending more and more time in front of a screen.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib’s experiment would not have gone awry with proper supervision, of course, but they also would not have learned the lesson of Everything Pudding: that not all foods can be combined (Tib should have known this anyway!), that consulting recipes and directions makes sense, and that more of something is not always better. While most modern eight-year-olds are not given unsupervised access to a kitchen and permitted to cook in it, these lessons still hold. And they are most charmingly conveyed in this episode, which captures so much about the girls’ desires to be independent, original, and grown up.

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For more on cooking with children, see: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/guide-cookery-skills-age

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Meeting Tacy

Betsy Ray meets the little girl who will become her lifelong best friend, Tacy Kelly, when Tacy’s family moves across the street. On the chilly March day that they move in, Tacy wanders outside to take in her new surroundings, and Betsy excitedly dons her cold weather clothing to greet her. But Tacy is shy, and sprints back into her house when Betsy calls out to her, asking her name. Betsy is stung and retreats home.

Tacy then peeks her head out of the front door to quickly shout “Tacy!” Betsy doesn’t realize that that Tacy actually is calling out her own name; it is one that Betsy has never heard, so she remains confused and hurt. But the misunderstanding turns out to be the only quarrel that Betsy and Tacy would ever have. “And of course it did not count,” Lovelace explains. “For they weren’t friends yet” (p. 7, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993).

That is remedied in short order. Betsy and Tacy become friends at her fifth birthday party in April. At the party, the chidren play games like pin the tail on the donkey, march around the house to the sounds of Betsy’s mom playing the piano, and Betsy opens her presents, the most special (and iconic) of which is the small glass pitcher with a gold plated rim from Tacy.

Today, this children’s birthday party might happen at a venue, like a jungle gym or an arcade. A game of musical chairs might be played or a dance party might commence, set to the sounds of recorded music, probably from a playlist stored and played on a digital device. Birthday presents would likely be something fun to play with or to wear.

But Betsy quickly realizes that the real gift of the day is her brand new friend. She and Tacy remain side by side throughout the party, hands often clasped, and Lovelace informs the reader that this would be the case ever after. For Betsy had received the nicest kind of present: “the present of a friend” (p. 14, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993). And that is the same now, exactly as it was then.

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For more on birthday parties in the early 1900s (including a charming children’s photo), see: https://www.rheaheraldnews.com/lifestyles/article_743b172c-c1ac-11e3-b54b-001a4bcf887a.html

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Betsy and Tacy Start School

Now that they are five, it is time for Betsy and Tacy to start school, a prospect that intrigues Betsy and terrifies Tacy. Their older sisters Julia and Katie accompany them and introduce them to their teacher, Miss Dalton. Betsy becomes increasingly worried that Tacy, with her face bright red and seriously on the verge of tears, will not say a word. At recess, as the boys and girls march in separate lines to their separate sides of the playground, Tacy takes off. Betsy follows her.

A typical first day of school in the modern era might come much earlier in a child’s life than age five, given the prevalence of pre-school and early schooling programs. Many daycare centers follow a school-like system as well. While children might not be segregated by gender in their play spaces (although they certainly could be), it is highly unlikely that a small child could simply run from a formalized school setting without triggering an alert instantly. It takes Miss Dalton some time to locate Tacy and Betsy at Mrs. Chubbock’s store, sitting on the steps having cried their hearts out (Betsy’s tears inspired by Tacy’s, and both of their tears halted as they sample the chocolate candy with which they have been provided). For as Mrs. Chubbock knows, one cannot simultaneously cry and eat chocolate!

Miss Dalton comes up with an equally creative solution to allay Tacy’s fears: Betsy and Tacy will share a seat in their “Fashion” style school desk (see link below) that could actually seat two, with its large desktop and attached bench-style seat. This arrangement proving satisfactory, Betsy and even Tacy come to love school, love their teachers (usually!) and love learning. School life, including its social component, will be central to the Betsy-Tacy series, and the responses of Mrs. Chubbock and Miss Dalton to the situation depict beautifully the importance of treating children’s feelings with respect, dignity…and a little dose of creativity!

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On schooling in the early 1900s, see: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1900s-education-overview

On the history of the school desk, see: https://www.motal.org/school-bench-and-desks.html

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The Duo Become a Trio

Betsy and Tacy meet Tib at the very end of Betsy-Tacy, but it is in Betsy-Tacy and Tib that the friendships flower, and the unit of two expands to include a third. Tib proves to be the perfect addition to the Betsy-Tacy duo. She ensures that Betsy and Tacy’s relationship will not become too insular, and she brings a welcome new energy to their lives. Exotically different but with a down-to-earth practicality, Tib enchants Betsy and Tacy, and brings a steady, grounding presence to their lives. In short (pun intended, for Tib is tiny!), Tib opens up their world.

Tib is German-American, the granddaughter of immigrants, and has had a very different upbringing than either Betsy or Tacy. Tib’s family instills in her a deep appreciation for heritage and a strong work ethic. Tib’s mother insists that she learn to cook, clean, and sew, even as a young child, while Tib’s father insinuates that she will someday be a “housewife” (p. 49, Harper Trophy paperback edition, 1993). Meanwhile, Betsy and Tacy have fewer domestic chores, and it is clear, even at this young age, that Betsy aspires to be a professional writer.

There are known benefits and challenges when a group of two friends becomes a group of three. Alliances are now possible, but so are new pathways for learning and understanding. Children in the modern age are exposed to so many things (bad and good) on TV, the internet, and social media, that is more important than ever that they form healthy, grounding, face-to-face friendships in which they can learn about other cultures, values, and lifestyles personally, directly. Now, just as one hundred years ago, managing the challenges of sustaining a group of three friends can help children develop critical skills of diplomacy and conflict resolution.

The friendship of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib serves as an excellent example of this. As we will see throughout the series, the girls respect and enjoy one another’s differences. They form deep, resilient bonds on the basis of those differences, not despite them. In fact, to correct the last sentence of the first paragraph in this post, the three of them open up one another’s worlds. Avoiding unnecessary alliances, supporting one another’s choices and preferences, they expand their collective horizons, and function beautifully and lovingly as a team greater than the sum of its parts.

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On Tib’s German heritage, see: Claudia Mills. “Diversity in Deep Valley: Encountering the “Other” in the Betsy-Tacy Series.” Children’s Literature, vol. 32, 2004, p. 84-111. Project MUSE. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chl.2004.0018.