Saturday Night Music: Vince Guaraldi

My grandparents' brush with crime.

Armed Robbery at Country Club

Around 1925-The Grieb Family, Chick, Dot and Janet (probably in Albany or Syracuse)

Around 1920-Chick Grieb was the drummer

Dot Grieb around 1950 in their suite at Oak Terrace

My grandparents lived at Oak Terrace Country Club from about 1941 to 1953. My grandfather managed the facility for my Grandmother's childhood friend and her husband, The Wingels. It had a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, restaurant and rooms at the top of the building for several people who needed to golf every day, I guess. (The Wingels have their own crime story too). My grandparents lived there too.

On a night in 1947, four armed masked gunmen broke into the Club and trussed the three women and seven men on site with belts and neckties--I guess they did not expect such a crowd.
 (You can read the full article above).

Several articles at the time referred to the robbers as gentlemen because they allowed my grandfather to take his heart medication before robbing them. They locked all ten of the residents in the room where the safe was before making their getaway. I doubt $7700 was what they expected to take in, but maybe in 1947 it wasn't as meager as it seems. They were never caught. But the ten people played bridge at a table  left in the room until a waiter let them out the next day. The bottom picture is my grandmother in the room they lived in for all those years. But she never had to cook a meal!

Have you had a brush with crime?

How About a Balloon Race?

Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, December 6, 2013

Steve Nase with my parents, his grandparents, circa 1992

Robert Barnard day on December 20th.
Would someone like to helm this on January 3?  

From the vault.

THE FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND HOW THEY GREW, Margaret Sidney

The Five Little Peppers book series was created by Margaret Sidney between 1881 and 1916. The series began with the Peppers, a fatherless family, finding themselves in difficult straits. Mamsie presides over her three sons and two daughters.

My copy of the first volume has a few lovely colored pictures and many in black and white. It is number Book#28 in the Patti Nase Library. That information is crossed out and the name Jeff Nase written over it. Something evil has been at work here.

The style is very much like that in LITTLE WOMEN and is clearly greatly influenced by Alcott. The poverty, the triumph over adversity, the camaraderie is similar, the cozy setting is the same. Yet this series continues past the first volume, highlighting different circumstances and family members over time. The writing is lovely. I was amazed at how sophisticated the language was since it is billed for 8-12 year olds. There is something comforting in how none of their problems came from lack of love, drugs, prejudice, or any modern distraction. I could read one right now. I didn't save many of my childhood books, (many passed down to me from cousins and friends were a bit worn to begin with and I was not a careful child), but I saved four Little Pepper books. All of them claimed by my brother, who I am sure never read a book without a cowboy on the cover.

In order of publication, the Five Little Peppers books are as follows (publication dates follow in parentheses):
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1881)
Five Little Peppers Midway (1890)
Five Little Peppers Grown Up (1892)
Five Little Peppers: Phronsie Pepper (1897)
Five Little Peppers: The Stories Polly Pepper Told (1899)
Five Little Peppers: The Adventures of Joel Pepper (1900)
Five Little Peppers Abroad (1902)
Five Little Peppers At School (1903)
Five Little Peppers and Their Friends (1904)
Five Little Peppers in the Brown House (1907)
Five Little Peppers: Our Davie Pepper (1916)

From Elsewhere in Blog Land

Sergio Angelini, THINK TWICE, Ayn Rand
Yvette Banek, GIDEON OLIVER BOOKS, Aaron Elkins
Joe Barone, A GREAT DELIVERANCE, Elizabeth George 
Brian Busby, EXIT IN GREEN, Martin Brett 
Bill Crider, 12 GREAT CLASSICS OF SCIENCE FICTION, edited by Groff Conklin
Martin Edwards, ACCESSORY TO MURDER, Pamela Barrington
Curt Evans, THE FOURTH LETTER, Frank Gruber
Ray Garraty, INDEPENDENCE DAY, Richard Ford
Jerry House, RED RANGE and PIGEONS FROM HELL, Joe R. Lansdale
Randy Johnson, BLOODY MURDOCK, Robert Ray
Nick Jones, OUR MAN IN CAMELOT, Anthony Price
George Kelley, THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS, L. Frank Baum
Margot Kinberg, RATKING, Michael Dibdin
Rob Kitchin, THE LOW ROAD, Chris Womersley
B.V. Lawson, THE MYSTERY OF MARY, Grace Livingston Hill
Evan Lewis, THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF SATAN HALL, John Carroll Daly
Steve Lewis/ Allen J. Hubbin, PHILLY STAKES, Gillian Roberts
Todd Mason, STORIES FROM ANOTHER WORLD, Sheila Kohler; THE MAN WHO LOVED THE MIDNIGHT LADY, Barry Malzberg
Neer, MR. NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS, Christopher Isherwood
J.F. Norris, THE JUDAS CAT, Dorothy Salisbury Davis 
Juri Nummelin, THE DEADLY CHANCE, Paul Denver
James Reasoner, DEATH STALKS THE NIGHT, Hugh B. Cave
Richard Robinson, WIND SONG, Carl Sandburg
Gerald Saylor, BEST AMERICAN NOIR OF THE CENTURY, Penzler and Ellroy
Ron Scheer, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, Max Brand 
Kerrie Smith, THE RIDERS, Tim Winton
TomCat, MURDER ON THE TRAIN, Herman Heijerman
Kevin Tipple, TOO LATE TO DIE, Bill Crider
Prashant Trikannad, THE KILLERS, Ernest Hemingway

Final Scene: ANNIE HALL

Oh, those sixties movies

Kevin around 2009

People always knock the sixties for turning out so few great movies. These two are not forgotten but rather examples of good movies from the sixties.

I saw two in the last week. POINT BLANK and BONNIE AND CLYDE.

What else makes the sixties list of great movies?

What Were Some of Your Favorite Books of 2013?

I think this is New Year's Eve circa 1952

Mine are: 

THE BLACK HOUSE, Peter May
LIFE AFTER LIFE, Kate Atkinson
LET HIM GO, Larry Watson

These were all written this year (or last) but yours don't have to be.

My favorite forgotten book was SHACKLED by Bill Pronzini

Theme Song: PEYTON PLACE (TV)

Book Care

Dad and Josh circa 1976

I am now in possession of a book that belongs to a friend of mine. He wants me to read a story in it and I have had it for several months without doing so. I want to read the story, dear readers, but I am not careful with books. This book does not have the spine broken and the only way I could read the story is by holding the book open six inches or less. I am afraid even to touch it. When people loan me books, I take the same book out of the library and read that copy, returning the perfect one to its owner.

Books are sacred to me but not SACRED to me if you get the drift. I don't write in books or deface them in any way. But I do open them as far as I can, stick them open-faced on the floor, eat lunch over them. They are an extension of me--I am not an extension of them.

How do you treat your books?

First Wednesday Book Review Club

Dad circa 1955

I am a big Larry Watson fan and LET HIM GO did not disappoint. It is a great followup to books like WHITE CROSSES and MONTANA: 1948.

After their adult son is killed in an accident, his widowed wife marries again and leaves the Blackledge's home to go with her new husband to Montana. She takes their grandson with her, of course, and therein lies the problem.

"With you or without you," Margaret Blackledge insists, and at these words George knows his only choice is to follow her.
 
George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, tracking down the Weboy clan quickly. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a horrific family determined not to give the boy up without a fight. It's more about possession than love with a family like this. 

This slim volume contains a heart-pounding story, unforgettable characters, terrific atmosphere and some of the most beautiful prose you will ever read. I liked it almost as much as MONTANA: 1948, making it still one of my favorite books. Oh, to write like Mr. Watson. 

For more reviews, go to Barrie Summy's blog