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O Ye Jigs & Juleps! A Humorous Slice of Small-Town, Turn-of-the-Century America
O Ye Jigs Juleps A Humorous Slice of SmallTown TurnoftheCentury America Author:Virginia Cary Hudson, Karla Kuskin O YE JIGS & JULEPS is the collected essays of Virginia Cary Hudson, who by all available accounts wrote them when ten years old in 1904; discovered in an attic trunk, they were published in 1962 -- and the book became a surprise bestseller. Although it has fallen in and out of print over the years, it has never been entirely forgott... more »en and has met with the occasional reprint over the years.
Most of Hudson's writings are focused, either directly or in a roundabout way, on her upbringing in the American Episcopal Church of her era. (When a relative describes the Episcopals as "stuck up" Hudson, with a child's talent for absolutes, takes the phrase literally.) At the same time, she does not stint the social foibles of her day, and her mix of innocence and savvy causes her mother to have one "Irish fit" after another, all of them described with remarkable pith. "And when my mother got home got home from Middleton on the trolley car," she writes, "she said plenty. And when I thought she said everything there was to say, she still had plenty left."
Even though Virginia's writings encompass only ten essays and run to a mere fifty pages (including line drawings), she covers a lot of ground. Church Sacraments, especially Baptism, get the once over; she instructs us on how to behave in church and what to do when the Baptists next door sing too loud; she tells how to get your garden weeded by giving a party; and lectures on personal appearance, not to mention the Great Wall of China. Much of it is laugh-out-loud funny, all of it is charming, and although it is presently out of print again it is well worth seeking out.« less