This is written as a Pastime of one of the many times I’ve spent a ‘snow day,” or “icy weather day,” at home from Warren Elementary School with at least a couple of my best fictional pals.
The Hardy Boys.
Now the Hardy Boys, brothers, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series intended for children and teens.
They were not down the highway or across the back field from our humble home out of what was once Highway 15.
They did not ride the long yellow school bus of the Warren School District No. 1 – or did they? Often one or two of their adventures were safely ensconced in my book satchel or carefully in my hands as I rode home knowing the next few days might be a snow day.
If the week ahead looked like a snow day was coming and we were in town on a Saturday morning, the Warren Branch Library, back then in the tiny brick structure on the courthouse square, I had at least two of the Hardy Boys books in my collection of 4 books to take home with me.
The book series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterparts.
The characters were created by American writer Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of book-packaging firm Stratemeyer Syndicate. The books themselves were written by several ghostwriters, most notably Leslie McFarlane, under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
I once wrote a book report in Junior High for Mrs. Elizabeth Weiss and she corrected me on the name of my author which I had put in Franklin W. Dixon. In the margins in her red pen, she wrote in a flawless script:
“Mr. Franklin W. Dixon is a pseudonym. (She underlined that foreign word to me – twice). Look up that word and write the definition on the bottom of this report and return it to me for a better grade.”
In doing so, I went from a B-minus to a B-plus.
But back to the Hardy Boys.
Their books have evolved since their debut in 1927. From 1959 to 1973, the first 38 books were extensively revised, largely to remove depictions of racial stereotypes; they were also targeted towards younger readers by being rewritten in a simpler, action-oriented style to compete with television.
I guess I read the original, non-washed version. Today they might not pass the muster.
The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives. Frank is eighteen (sixteen in earlier versions), and Joe is seventeen (fifteen in earlier versions).
They live in the city of Bayport on Barmet Bay with their father, detective Fenton Hardy; their mother, Laura Hardy; and their Aunt Gertrude. The brothers attend high school in Bayport, where they are in the same grade, that always puzzled me.
But their school, like exactly which state they lived in, is rarely mentioned in the books, and never hinders their solving of mysteries.
In the older stories, the Boys’ mysteries are often linked to their father’s confidential cases. He sometimes requests their assistance, while at other times they stumble upon relevant villains and incidents.
I always like that the Hardy Boys are sometimes assisted in solving mysteries by their pals, Chet Morton, Phil Cohen, Biff Hooper, Jerry Gilroy, and Tony Prito; and, less frequently, by their platonic girlfriends Callie Shawand Iola Morton (Chet’s sister).
Later on, I found it both easy and difficult to date a friend’s sister, but I did.
In each novel, the Hardy Boys are constantly involved in adventure and action. Despite the frequent danger, the boys “never lose their nerve … They are hardy boys, luckier and cleverer than anyone around them.”
They lived in an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue: “Never were so many assorted felonies committed in a simple American small town. Murder, drug peddling, race-horse kidnapping, diamond smuggling, bank robbing, kidnapping, dynamiting, burglaries, medical malpractice, big-time auto theft, even (in the 1940s) the hijacking of strategic materials and espionage, all were conducted with Bayport.
I thought Warren and Bradley County, Arkansas was quite tame to all the goings on these guys experienced.
Even today I can close my eyes and remember reading these books, in the warmth of a small wood heater in my grandparent’s living room. Or sitting in the drafty kitchen while my grandmother prepared breakfast of biscuits and ham.
On a cloudy day or late at night, by the only light of a kerosene lantern, these books were a golden memory for me today, as the lights flicker, but stay on in our subdivision in Fayetteville.
Not until much later did I realize that with so much in common, the boys are so little differentiated from me.
Frank had dark hair; Joe was blond.
They were two brothers but so much different. And that has held true in most families I have known.
They did not tussle much and it seems never got into arguments where the tears would flow and the blows (even minor ones) fell on one another.
I did think they were rich as Frank and Joe often travel to far-away locations, including Mexico, Scotland, Iceland, and Egypt.
The Hardy’s also travel across the United States by motorcycle, motorboat, iceboat, train, airplane, and their own car.
On a cold, snowy, icy day, the Hardy Boys were excellent reading for a snow bound lad wishing he was at school where the activities, even on a no recess day, would be exciting.
But thinking back of sitting in that warm room reading one of these books in a window back lit with the sparkling snow and ice from a good winter snow is a Pastime precious to me on this day.
Mahlon,
You nailed it buddy! I WELL remember that little library, but cannot for the life of me remember the librarians name! Sad, because she was nice enough to lend me 6 books at a time, since we lived so far out of town. When I left there with my trove I felt rich. Thanks for bringing back good memories.
Keep up the good work!