bluecastle | 28 Books - Day 3 (Reply)

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (1937)

"The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is farthest away from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it so one could be taken to look at the dolls' houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day. If the weather were not too wet, one was expected to "save the penny and walk." (page 7)

When I was seven or eight or so, my Mom signed me up for a series of ballet lessons. There was a little studio above the local movie theater. Every Wednesday night I got poured into some pink tights and shipped off to class. I don't remember much about the classes themselves. I remember we had a recital at the end of the year, and our music had something to do with weddings as I remember having lace sewed onto my leotard.

The theory was to take an awkward tomboy girl and turn her into a graceful swan. (Future tap and gymnastics lessons went along the same lines). But I didn't have it in me to practice enough to make it more than a passing fancy. Plus, those damn tights itched!

But I liked the idea of being a ballerina ... and Ballet Shoes is a book I've read over and over again.

I picked up my current copy years ago at a used book sale held annually by a local women's group. I payed 30 cents for it. It is so well loved, the bookcloth on the spine has fallen off.

I was obsessed by all the Streatfeild books. I read any of them I could get my hands on at my local library. I discovered a treasure trove of them them at the library I currently work for some years back, and checked them all out to re-read.

I wish I could put my finger on what makes Pauline, Petrova, and Posy so captivating. And really it's all the residents of the house on Cromwell Road ... Garnie, and Nana, (and later G.U.M.) and the tenants Mr. and Mrs. Simpson (Mrs. Simpson always seems get cut out of filmed versions. Probably to introduce some UST between Garnie and Mr. Simpson), Miss Theo Dane, and the lady Doctors' Jakes and Smith (Dr. Smith tends to end up on the cutting room floor too ... and two lady teachers living together in the 1930s? Very subtle that.).

Mostly I think the attraction is that those little girls were not only allowed, but encouraged to pursue their theatrical leanings. And of course they were British, which made them particularly attractive to me, although I have no idea where the Anglophilia comes from...

I believe I was supposed to pursue some kind of a career in theater. It's always been my first love. But what with parental objections and whatnot, here I am with an unfulfilling day job, doing local community theater from time to time to satisfy the itch.

I've never worn a white organdy dress to one of those auditions like Pauline or Petrova... but I've certainly wanted to!

p.s. although I have walked down Cromwell Road and stood outside the Victoria and Albert on a whirlwind trip to Europe just after I graduated high school. My parents were astounded how much of London I was familiar with. Reading rules!!