Category Archives: 1960s

343V: Ellen, Haggis, Scottish Traditions in America

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A teen girl whose family has died is sent to live with relatives (maiden aunts?) in a part of the United States that still follows more Scottish customs than American customs, including holidays, and she experiences major culture shock.  I believe the title character is named Ellen.  The cover shows her at the door wearing a shift mini-dress, so the novel probably was written in the late 1960s or early 1970s.  This novel is the first time I encountered the word “haggis.”

343Q: Boy Collects Golden Dragon Scales to Make A Dragon (Solved!)

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Here are the details of a book my dad read around 1960 (possibly as late as 1963, but unlikely).

Plot elements: A boy (named maybe Ling or Lo, or a hyphenated name with one of those syllables) goes on a long quest collecting golden dragon scales that in the end fit together like a puzzle and make a dragon.

Genre: kids chapter book

Publish date: likely late 40’s early 50’s (my dad’s best guess—it was a library book)

Physical description of book: blue cloth hardcover

Illustrations: he remembers an illustrative motif of cranes, like on chapter headings maybe

Some books he claims it is NOT that I’ve found:

  • Loot of the Flying Dragon (by Kenneth Payson Kempton)
  • The Pink Porcelain Pipe (by Pauline Scott)
  • The Overcoming of the Dragon (by LC Sturgis)
  • The Last Dragon (by Dan Totheroh)

Many thanks for whatever you can do! I’ll at least know I tried my best after gnawing this bone for decades.

342Q: Vintage Picture Book Featuring the Ocean

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Vintage Picture Book (from 50s, 60’s, or 70s), not very thick, stapled, maybe 10 – 12 pages, not a lot of printed text. Watercolor, realistic illustrations

What I remember about the story: A boy spends a lot of time snorkeling, he sees all kinds of fish and turtles, and he finds a shipwreck and a shark shows up (scary) but he escapes and finds a treasure.

I remember the following illustrations:

  1. Sea stars on a sandy ocean floor, the sunlight is shining through the water onto the ocean floor
  2. A sea turtle swims and again the sunlight coming through the water
  3. A two page illustration showing the boy on the left top looking down on the shipwreck, again the light plays through the water

The illustrations were realistic and what stood out was the light portrayed underwater.

 

342I: Children playing in a tree

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My brother and I have been searching for a picture book that we were particularly fond of as children. I don’t remember the title but it would have been published in the late 60’s or early 70’s. The story is about a boy (possibly named Keith) who has his father help him built a fort in a large tree in his back yard. Some neighbor children come by to play, and they end up adding their own structures to the tree. I remember one of the friends puts a big wash tub up in the tree and pretends to be an astronaut in a ship. Some girls bring their dolls up in the tree and make a tent with a blanket or some kind of hammock. There’s also a plank that they stand on that is supposed to be a raft? Maybe one of the kids was a pirate? Not sure, but before you know it, all the neighborhood children are playing in the tree. I can still see the illustrations in my mind’s eye and and would recognize it if I saw it. Thanks!

341O: Illustration of giant, dog and boy

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As a child in the mid sixties I was looking through a children’s book and all I can remember is one illustration and I have been looking for this book for years.
The illustration was not a full page, the page included the story.  The illustration was of a giant holding out his ring and a little black dog was jumping through the ring.  The giant had dark hair and beard, kind of reminded me to Brutus from the Popeye cartoons.He was laughing with delight.   There was also a boy in the picture.  I believe the dog belonged to the boy.  It looked like it was sketched with a pencil.

341L: Little girl’s doll makeover at her father’s Doll Hospital (Solved!)

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Looking for a child's fiction/picture book circa 1950's-1960's, maybe even 1940's -Hardcover - Colored pictures drawn like doll wigs of different colors, new clothes in tissue paper, clothes accessories, etc. Pictures are not 'cartoony'; more true to life.

Story: Little girl has been asking her father to fix her doll but he has been too busy at his shop. Finally, on the little girl's birthday, he closes his doll hospital early and dedicates the rest of the day to fixing up her beloved doll with new eyes, face and clothes that she gets to pick out all by herself.

341F: Human Sterilization for Health Care

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It's not a children's book. I probably read this book 20 years ago and it was not a new book then. I'm guessing it was written some time between the 40s and 60s, but that's just a guess. The book takes place in a society where there have been lots of treatments for genetic diseases, so people who used to die before child-bearing age weren't, passing the diseases along, and health of the population was therefore less robust. (Plus possibly the cost of treatment.) So people were only allowed to get medical treatments, vaccinations, etc. if they were sterilized. I seem to recall people living in a sort of health-care ghetto and many people being anti-health care.