Retro

This article talks about the re-issuance of the Baby Sitters Club series, news which even provoked a story in the New York Times. Yes, this is interesting, though I'm torn about whether the Sweet Valley High resurgence is slightly more interesting. I was definitely a fan of these books back in the late 1980s, because I was about these girls age, and hey, who didn't like baby sitting? The girls seemed like sweeter, nicer ones than the ones I was stuck going to school with, and I couldn't help thinking "Wow, Mary Ann has all of these great friends, what about me?" Sigh.

There's always the facebook-esque vindication when someone formerly athletic is crowing about being able to walk four miles. Big whoop. Maybe books like this allows our revisionist fantasies about what school was like, what friendship was like back when we were that age. Or maybe it just recalls what we hoped life was like back in the day, a fonder reminiscence of life at 13 in 8th grade, when quiet nerdy girls had boyfriends named Logan and they had lots of spending $$ to buy wardrobes far cooler than I could ever hope to attain. Where circles of friends would last.

Though gosh, how young is an 8th grader? Twenty years younger than me, and I have "friends" with daughters almost that age. I used to think that was so old and cool, and now, wow, that seems so damn young.