I went to my bookshelves and began to search among my collection for some inspiration. After a few moments, I had a "V-8" moment. Of course! The answer was obvious. This couple wasn't found among my adult fiction books. I had to go back to childhood.
My favorite couple was Betsy Ray and Joe Willard from the Betsy-Tacy Series by Maud Hart Lovelace. The character of Elizabeth (Betsy) Warrington Ray was based on the author and describes her wonderful childhood growing up in Mankato, Minnesota at the turn of the 20th century.
The first four books are about Betsy's early years. Then we follow Betsy through the next four years as a student at Deep Valley High School. There is so much fun in high school: football games, clubs, parties, dances and of course, numerous crushes on boys. One boy keeps her interested, although they do not actually date until senior year, the enigmatic Joe Willard.
Betsy and Joe have a common passion- they both love to write. Joe eventually works at the local newspaper and has plans to study at Harvard. Betsy writes stories, poems, and an occasional silly song lyric, but secretly sends her short stories to magazines in the hopes of getting published.
What makes Betsy and Joe so believable is their mutual respect for each other. Betsy often hid her intelligence from some of the boys she dated, but Joe taught her that brains were just as beautiful (and sexy) as curled hair and cute ankles. Joe often felt inferior to other kids because he was an orphan and had to juggle school and a job. Betsy gave him confidence.
Betsy believed in Joe's ability to get through college, to work as a serious journalist and to write fiction.
Joe supported Betsy's quest to be a writer, giving her encouragement and supporting her career as a writer when most women were told that their job was to provide a comfortable home for her husband and children.
Betsy and Joe were, as Joe told Betsy when she returned from her year abroad, as perfect together as a rose on a stem, or two sides of the same coin. They were true partners, supportive of each other's dreams and their pursuit of their respective writing careers.
I read the Betsy-Tacy books over and over as a young pre-teen girl and the relationship of Joe and Betsy, fueled my own dreams of what a good relationship should be like. I wanted a partner, an equal, someone who would support my dreams as much as I supported his.
I'm blessed to have finally found my Joe.
 |
| Betsy and Joe in NYC |
No comments:
Post a Comment