The Vine: Ask The Readers Book-a-thon #5
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on March 3, 2010 – 1:20 PM14 Comments
Dear Sars,
A longtime lurker peeking out into the light.
No amount of Googling has helped me turn up an old favorite from my Catholic school days, so I’m giving it a shot here. There was a book (or possibly a short series, maybe three books?) about three friends in the WWII/early ’50s era. They all went to a Catholic school and were all three named Mary Something (Mary Catherine, Mary Elizabeth, names like that). In the only scene I remember vividly, they discuss getting polio and how, if you can touch your chin to your chest, you don’t have polio.
Help! This has nagged me for, no kidding, almost twenty years now (yikes).
Keep up the good work,
Cyn
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Okay, how many Vine readers just tried to touch their chins to their chests? (Excellent neck stretch. Also tried ear to shoulder which is also a good stretch.)
*raises hand* Guilty as charged. Also, evidently I have polio.
Is it Kitty in High School by Judy Delton? The friend names are wrong, Delton’s characters are Kitty, Eileen and Margaret Mary, but the rest of the details match. I never it, but I read Kitty in the Middle and recognized the basics, so I added “polio” to my “kitty in the middle” google search and it popped up Kitty in High School. Looks like there were three books in the Kitty series with a fourth written quite a bit later.
That should have been “never read it”. And can I just say that even if I’m wrong, I’m stoked to finally have had even an inkling of what one of these find-a-book posts might be?
I don’t have polio, but I believe I’ve alarmed the coworker who just walked up behind me.
I remember this too… but in my memory it was meningitis, and aside from that I am no help…
So now I can sleep knowing I’m free of polio AND meningitis?
I vaguely remember the book, too. I don’t remember them all being named Mary but I do remember there were a lot of Mary Somethings in the book. Maybe there was a nun or two also named Mary but the main characters all had different names. I read it in the 80s, I’m almost certain.
The Judy Delton book looks familiar but I can’t tell if that’s it, I’m sorry.
Crap. I know I’ve read this, but I can’t think of it. In the meantime, maybe try “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” by John R. Powers.
It’s not one of the Swiss Chalet books, is it? I never read them, but something about the Marys seems to ring a bell.
I’m blessedly free from polio and menengitis (I’m guessing the whole chin-to-chest thing was to diagnose a stiff neck, an early symptom) but am no help on the book. Would like to read it, though, if anyone gets a hit!
I have not read this, but my guess is that the chin-to-chest move is meningitis, not polio. Classic test. If your neck is stiff side to side, it’s musculo-skeletal. Up and down could be inflammation of the spine meninges. So you, now… be advised.
GO GO GADGET PHYSIOLOGY NERD.
Not that I have the solution, but were the girls also really into going to the movies? And all the movies had letter grades to say whether they were appropriate to go to or not (pre-MPAA), and they go to a movie and the girl is CONVINCED it’s got a bad rating and she’s not supposed to be there? And as soon as the movie is over she runs home and looks it up and it turns out the rating is fine?
Now you have me wondering what THAT book was.
@Rebecca – I totally read the one about the movie trauma! And it does remind me of the first book. If you include the movie stuff it does make me think of the Kitty books.
THANK YOU so much for the tip on Judy Delton! I may have boggled the details but this is the best lead I’ve ever had. I’d have read them in the 80s, so it looks like a winner! Now to get some copies….