Marius works in Rotterdam and goes to and from Veere most days which is 60 odd miles so it doesn't take him "much more than an hour". (Dr. van der Stevejinck lives about 18 miles from his workplace. It takes him about 30 minutes. Longer than that on the way home. Some days MUCH longer.) Was there a Dutch speed limit back in 1972? Traffic congestion would have had to have been non-existent. Is this at all realistic? Discuss. [Betty Keira] Mijneer Nathan van Voorheers has a fifty minute commute for a distance of 13 miles but since he goes via compact car-light rail-city bus he's probably lucky it isn't longer. No doubt a great socking Bentley could eat up the distance in no time.Let's talk about wills-- Tabitha's father leaves no amended will so that Tabitha's stepmother inherits everything and though the father intended stepmother to receive all the money and Tabitha to get Chidlake, it was only an idea since he never changed his will. Perhaps Betty Magdalen, who knows something about the law and something about the British could address this?
Do you have a will? Or will you let your child's stepparent take it all by default? I have trouble being in complete harmony with Tabitha on this one. Yes, she was hard done by but she has a flat (small), fine furnishings, an annuity and a longtime servant whose only retirement plan seems to be clinging like a limpet to Tabitha until she's worked into the ground. Seriously, Tabitha is quite well off for a nurse. "She gave Mrs. Jeffs a speaking glance as she did so which that lady rightly interpreted as a request for her cuffs to be brought immediately. Ward sisters always wore their cuffs when they did a round with the consultant staff, in the same way as men took their hats off in lifts and everyone curtsied to royalty..." As sure as God made little green apples and Betty Neels mentions Ward Sisters, you can bet that somewhere along the line she will be fussing with her cuffs. Evidently the cuffs were not attached...were they to cover up wrinkled sleeves? Protection from spatter? The sartorial equivalent of a necktie? Why detachable cuffs on Ward Sisters??? Help us out here. Please.
There is a lot of swimming in Tabitha by Moonlight. I love that the characters change behind trees and rocks...but why not change in the boat? Trees and rocks are fine in a pinch - but sometimes they only screen you from one side, while the family picnicking on the other side of the rock have a birds eye view (which you don't realize because you are so busy peeking around the rock or tree to make sure no one in your group is peeking) and sometimes there are nasty little surprises like bugs, snakes or poison ivy. Of course no one in Neeldom would peek.
And why don't people wear swim suits under their clothing?--that way, no need for a rock.Swimming. Tabitha is a good swimmer. It's more common that heroines in Neels are poor or merely adequate swimmers - but there are other examples of good swimmers. The Hanna Bettys, one and all, fall under the "good swimmer" banner. We all "did time" on the high school swim team (don't you wish I had pictures of THAT!), and we all lettered in swimming...at least, I did, and if I did, any of the rest of them were entirely able to. The reason we were a swim team family was simple. Our dad was the high school swim coach adviser. He didn't do the main coaching - at least not while I was there - but he brought along his daughters (and some sons) to help bolster the number of swimmers. We may not be fast, but we are buoyant. I am convinced that because the Willamalane Pool family pass was the best deal for a fun time in provincial Oregon we all became expert.
CAST AWAY!! On one hand, I'm appalled that Lilith would strand Tabitha on the island...but c'mon Tabitha! How thick can you be? Besides that, and the fact that Tabitha is inadequately dressed for a night on a desert island, I adore the marooning of Tabitha. I was raised on Swiss Family Robinson, In Search of the Castaways, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Gilligan's Island (Which is Tabitha? Mary Ann or Ginger? Remember, she is wearing a bikini.) and more recently, Cast Away and the TV series Lost. Love, love, love it. Love it.
Things that I couldn't possibly fit into the review:
- She is supposed to have grey hairs--at 25. Unjust Betty!
- CHIDLAKE is near Lyme Regis which plays an important role in Jane Austen's Persuasion. Tabitha walks out onto the Cobb and I think of that nit Louisa Wentworth's fateful leap. Lilith might be persuaded to take such a leap if properly propelled with a sharp slap betwixt the shoulder blades...
- Marius and Tabitha find a woman with a concussion in her kitchen. Instead of whisking her off to the hospital, they wash up and sew stitches into her scalp on the spot. While I appreciate their low-cost, low-fuss approach, the woman--a horrible landlady with a "flat, harsh Midlands accent" who should probably walk the gallows for it--is just the kind to sue if she gets the slightest infection or runs a low-grade fever.
- Marius breaks into the above-mentioned landlady's house using one of Tabitha's hair pins. Where did he learn such a skill, I wonder?
- [Betty Debbie] Betty Keira noted in the fashion section of Tabitha in Moonlight that Tabitha wore pink denim pants. She scoffed. I gently remonstrated. This book was written back in 1972. Before the Denim Revolution. This was only one year after the dress code in our school district in Provincial Oregon relaxed and allowed girls to wear pants. Prior to that it was dresses only for girls. Our mom bought Betty Marcy and I two pairs of "jeans". Lavender and lime green. You heard me. Lavender and lime green jeans. I'm just saying...pink denim was not way out there back then. Impractical, yes - unheard of? No.
Hmmm...I have no idea what the British law is(Betty Magdalen? Help?), but under American law, I would find the will issue interesting. In my state, if there is a child of a 1st marriage and then a stepmother comes into the picture, stepmom would usually get 1/3 of the estate and the children of the previous marriage(s) would get the remaining 2/3. Of course, they'd still have to fight over who got Chidlake in her portion...
ReplyDeleteBetty Lynn -- Right, but that only happens if Dad dies intestate. Wait, I'll call Henry, my expert on British law!
ReplyDeleteOkay, there are some interesting wrinkles. First, the estate taxes were horrific back then in the UK, so unless Dad left lots of lolly to pay off Her Majesty's Revenue and Custom, Chidlake might have had to be sold upon his death no matter what he wished. And that's regardless of how many wills he did or did not make, and how the estate was to have been divided.
Next, there *should* have been an executor of the estate, so that a properly constructed will would have sorted out Chidlake's disposition. I think the courts might have appointed an executor if Dad had boatloads of lolly but nonetheless died intestate. Tabitha could have gotten Chidlake as her portion of his estate. (Henry and I are not certain how the estate would have been parceled out if he dies intestate -- possibly Betty Lynn's 1/3 to Wassername and 2/3 to Dad's legal issue, i.e., only Tabitha as Lilith is not his daughter is exactly right.)
However, the most likely scenario is this: Upon his second marriage to Whassername, Dad made out one of those "in the event I predecease my wife, Whassername, all my worldly goods and chattel (including real property) go to Wassername. It is my wish that Chidlake should ultimately go to my sole issue, Tabitha..." Wishes aren't binding, see.
What he should have done was leave Chidlake to Wassername as a life estate, or one of those executory interests -- shifting or springing, and I can never remember which is which -- that means Chidlake goes to Tabitha upon a specific occurrence, say when/if Wassername remarries or Lilith reaches her majority at age 21.
(Betty Lynn -- how tempting is it to call Chidlake Blackacre? I swear I'll write a historical novel about the Duke of Blackacre just to be funny for anyone who's been to law school.)
This isn't my favoritest of the early Canon, but I had not previously appreciated how unusual it was in that it has a Dutch surgeon Professor Mijnheer van der Velde-Schermts who lives in ZEELAND, which is nowhere near Friesland or Groningen! And there are at least two eastern states in The Netherlands that clearly have NO DOCTORS AT ALL -- or at least no hunky ones married to British nurses.
I vote that Veere go on the tentative itinerary for the Official Betty Neels Tour.
Also -- I have a specific request of the Bettys that are Grand Pooh-Bah Arbiters of Everything: When we get to the section of the Canon where all the couples know each other, could we read those in chronological order? They don't have to be clumped together -- interspersed in with other earlier and later books would be fine -- but just so that we're not meeting the babies of a couple before we've seen them fall in love, if you see what I mean.
Oh, and I will mount a defense for Marius regarding the genuinely regrettable comment "Lilith is upset." (We all know he needs one, right?) He's trying hard to keep from alienating Lilith and/or Wassername so he can buy Chidlake. Now -- what's really stupid about this is that he should have had his solicitors working on this anonymously so that he could leave Lilith & Wassername the heck alone. But no, he's got to do it using Hero Charms (a new breakfast cereal for kids) and Guile.
Okay, so if Tabitha blows up at Lilith -- as everyone including Marius sees she should -- that could mess up his plans re: Chidlake. So he says, in a moment of weakness, that "Lilith is upset" in a misguided effort to keep Tabitha from committing assault & battery as soon as they make it back to Veere.
I'm thinking it might be time for Dr. van der Stevejinck and I to update our wills...the last time we did was about seven or eight years ago...when we had more minor children.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Veere being "out there". Looking at a map you can see that it's practically in Belgium...and nothing good ever happens in Belgium (unless you happen to be in Brugge - where there's this tiny little chocolate shop named Dumon...but I digress).
How about this for a fantasy Netherlands tour beginning: Take the Dover ferry (or is it the hovercraft?) to Calais, then we can just drive up the A18 to Brugge (in a Bentley which will eat up the miles), pick up a hundred-weight or so of chocolate in Brugge, then drive up to take a ferry to Vlissingen - which is just a few kilometers south of Veere
I suspect the smart thing now is to take the Chunnel and drive from there, but I'll admit I have always wanted to take the Harwick (pronounced HAIR-ick) ferry to the Hoek (pronounced HOOK in the story that follows) of Holland. Here's why.
ReplyDeleteI was 15 when I first went to England and met my "future" (as in nearly 30 years into the future) husband. Henry was also 15. We have gracefully suppressed all memories of each other from that time.
Anyway, his family had a pet nickname for him: Hooky. (Which may not mean skiving off from school, the way it does here.) One day I asked, "Why Hooky?" And his mother's explanation was this: Henry -> Harry -> Harwick -> Hoek -> Hooky.
Incidentally, I had some really nasty nicknames "bestowed upon" me by my really nasty siblings. Like Henry I am the youngest. Ross is the eldest and has no nasty nicknames. Discuss.
I don't have any nicknames for Betty Debbie as it would have been impertinent to have given one and we didn't even grow up in the same household practically. But I didn't particularly attract many nicknames either and I'm pretty close to the youngest. Husband is a middle child and he never met a nickname that didn't like him. My favorite is Nat X (as though he is channeling a little freedom fighter vibe).
ReplyDeleteHAIR-ick? I'm not sure that something hasn't changed forever for me.
I did bestow a horrible nick name on Betty Tia who is 20-months younger than me. And I'm much to nice to share it now, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteNow that we're sharing spouses nicknames...Dr. van der Stevejinck's nickname amongst his childhood friends was "Fudd". As in Elmer. Not too sorry to say that after 3 generations using Elmer as a first, then middle name, we laid it to rest. And buried it deep.
ReplyDeleteI'd better hit "post" pretty quick....
I almost did call Chidlake Blackacre. Oh, and just to make it nice and weird, in my state, we get to have all manner of presumptions as to people you did or did not intend to disinherit based on when dad actually wrote his will.
ReplyDeleteThe nicknames are much more fun. Certain members of my family may have referred to me as Kitsy. No idea why. My personal favorite nickname is my Uncle Dink, though.
Betty Keira -- My cousin had picked out the name Nina if it was a girl, but when the time came, she had doubts. (She did end up using Nina, btw.) She wondered aloud if she should use Josephine, my mother's name (& she'd been named after her GRANDFATHER, for cripe's sake!).
ReplyDeleteI told my cousin that my mother would come back and haunt her if Josephine was ever used again -- she had hated that name!
I'd have named a daughter Sara Magdalen, figuring no one else in my family was ever going to use Magdalen again. Alas, no kids for me and my name dies with me. Saved the best for last, I suppose...
Betty Lynn: Doncha love jokes that only other victims, uh I mean graduates of law school and taking the bar exam can appreciate?
I had to go look up Blackacre and now I feel super in the know.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Betty Keira -- what's really great is that if one's discussion of property law requires there to be two estates, it's Blackacre and Greenacre. (I believe Whiteacre would be number three. You never need more than three.)
ReplyDeleteYou just have to love lawyers, particularly this branch where all the law dates back nearly all the way to the Saxons!
I expect my law degree from the University of Magdalen at the end of our blogging life.
ReplyDeleteBetty Keira -- you laugh, but there's a Magdalen College at Oxford and a Magdalene College at Cambridge. (British name alert: Both are pronounced "mawdlin"; my name is pronounced "MAG-duh-len.) I suspect you could read law at either of those colleges, but I don't know for sure.
ReplyDeleteI will try to be a fair and consistent grader at the U of Magdalen Law School. Betty Lynn can be the Dean. (Hey, Betty Lynn, just out of curiosity, which law school did you go to?)