28 Books -- Day 5

[bluecastle]

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (1936)

"A solitary figure escapes the huddle. She chugs over to the curb and mounts it to the sidewalk. She stands there and shows what a strange little figure she is, different from the rest. She wears a pongee pinafore, buttoned down the back and with long sleeves. She wears a navy-blue sailor hat with ribbons down the back, held under her chin with an elastic band. She wears ribbed black stockings and high black laced shoes with stubby toes, badly barked.

I know her in an instant; although I had forgotten all about her for years, had forgotten she ever existed. It gives me a shock to see her, looking so exactly like she should look, so everlastingly full of life and still on roller skates." (from, An Introduction to Lucinda, page 4)

Set in New York City in the 1890s, this is the story of ten year old Lucinda whose parents leave her with the two Misses Peters (Miss Peters and Miss Nettie, for of course they are very proper) for a year while  they go abroad. Armed with a pair of roller skates and a knack for making friends, Lucinda has Manhattan in the palm of her hand by the time of her parent's return.

I just looked up "pongee" as I have always wondered what kind of fabric that was, and I don't think it was an accidental choice by the author.

Pongee:
                                                                     

1.	silk of a slightly uneven weave made from filaments of wild silk woven in natural tan color.

2.	a cotton or rayon fabric imitating it. Compare Shantung (def. 2), tussah (def. 1).

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Origin:
1705–15; < Chin běnjī homewoven, lit., one's own loom

"Woven from one's own loom" is actually a pretty good metaphor for little Lucinda. Clearly she is from a family with some money. She goes to a good private girl's school, and her parents can afford that year abroad after all. But she is clearly the black sheep of the family, and her tenth year is when she learns to value her uniqueness.

She befriends Tony, the son of an Italian immigrant who sells fruit from a cart on the street. They roast potatoes in tin cans in the park, and create a puppet theater version of "The Tempest" with costumes made from old kid gloves, and cornmeal for sand.

It's an odd "children's" book. With references to Latin grammar, English Spode china, and Jay Gould, not to mention a couple doses of sorrow, sickness, and death. But I like it all the more for that. It doesn't pull any punches, and you really feel like Lucinda has seen the good and the bad in life during her year of relative freedom.

When I was ten, we moved into a big old Victorian house in a new town. I know Lucinda coped better than I did. But I was shy and she was not. But even 100 odd years later, I understood the struggles of being told you "must not" do this and that.

Long before "American Girl" was a brand name... there was Lucinda and her roller skates...and I am glad that I know her...