Tiny Pineapple

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The Tooth Fairy is No Fool

Zoë lost a tooth the day before yesterday and last night she received a dollar coin and a tiny stuffed bear from the Tooth Fairy. As she was going to bed this evening, she said, “Dad? Do you think if I put that same tooth back under my pillow that the Tooth Fairy would leave me something else?”

I suggested that trying to fool the Tooth Fairy might not be a wise course of action if she wanted to receive any dental reimbursements in the future, but she wanted to try it anyway.

Tomorrow morning, Zoë will find the following note under her pillow:

My Dearest Zoë,

After a thorough examination of the tooth under your pillow, I have determined that this is, in fact, the tooth for which I compensated you last night. According to Tooth Faerie Procedures and Practices, Volume 9, page 512, paragraph 3:

“The child may receive only one (1) gift per incisor, cuspid, bicuspid, or molar…”

Therefore, I am not authorized to leave you an additional gift this evening. But I do hope that you enjoyed the bear and dollar coin that I left last night and look forward to serving you again in the future.

Yours most sincerely,
The Tooth Faerie

Nurse of Greenmeadow

by Jane Corby (1964)
Nurse of Greenmeadow

A beautiful nurse finds danger and thrilling romance in a mysterious mansion.

THE TURRETS–A vast and brooding mansion ruled by an autocratic and crippled old lady…

Lovely young Judy Jordan came her as private nurse to the aged owner and remained to become involved in a romantic and dangerous crossfire between her employer’s handsome grandson and her dashing stockbroker–rivals alike for the aged lady’s money, her house, and then for Judy herself…

A thrilling story of suspense and mystery in a ghost-ridden old house–and of breathtaking romance for a beautiful nurse.

He’s a little clingy, don’t you think? And I don’t know what he’s whispering in her ear, but she’s not buying it…

Cinderella Nurse

by Jane Converse (1967)
Cinderella Nurse

She was on call to an ungrateful family and off-limits to love…until her Prince Charming–a handsome doctor–set her free.

Her sister was too beautiful and too spoiled for her own good.

Her mother dabbled in mysticism on Rita’s salary.

Rita Ambler was young, beautiful…and a Cinderella Nurse

“Give it up,” Glenn Seabrook had said. “They’re using you, Rita. They’ll never change.” But she couldn’t abandon her family. And she lost Glenn. It all seemed so long ago. Before she became the wife to an alcoholic, mother to a son–and widow. At twenty-four, life held no more surprises for Rita Ambler.

Then came the accident that changed everything. That thrust Rita Ambler into the arms of Dr. Lester Wyman and out of the reach of his new protégé, Dr. Glenn Seabrook…the only man she had ever loved.

Am I “off-limits to love?” How would I go about finding out? Is there a list posted somewhere?

Settlement Nurse

by Rosie M. Banks (1959)
Settlement Nurse

A mysterious, deranged vagrant in a coma. Isn’t that every young woman’s ideal?

Cindy anxiously watched her delirious patient. Kenneth Randall was a new experience for her. To the older nurses from the settlement house he was just another drifter–a vagrant who moved from one cheap hotel room to another, from one misery to the next

But Cindy saw only a man who needed her as no one ever had. It as her job to save him. But from what? His past was a mystery. And what of his future? Did it depend on the show girl who had left her green stockings in his room?

Suddenly Cindy was shocked to realize that she was actually jealous of a woman she had never seen. It was ridiculous–but it had happened. Cindy was falling in love with a strange man she hadn’t even spoken to!

A mysterious, deranged vagrant in a coma. Isn’t that every young woman’s ideal?

Later on in the book we learn that Mr. Right is really “a handsome but despondent young actor,” but that’s essentially the same thing, isn’t it? Except for the coma part, of course. But after a few dates with a sulking, self-absorbed thespian, she’ll probably look back on those early, speechless days with great fondness.

I love the two hoodlums standing in the background on the cover. They look like two extras from West Side Story waiting for the craft services truck to arrive. The waistline on the brunette’s jeans hits him a good three inches above the belly button, but he probably had to keep them hiked up like that or you couldn’t see his white socks. And that single light in the upstairs bedroom can’t be good. Surely all decent folk went to sleep hours ago…

Be Honest With Yourself: The Right Circles

Be Honest With Yourself: The Right Circles

The Right Circles

Swing the corner like swingin’ on a gate;
Now your own if you’re not too late;
Ring up four with all your might…
All join in and circle right.

Gaily the dancers circle and swing to the beat of the band and the command of the caller…every happy heart in tune.

What wholesome harmony; what wonderful fun…when everybody’s in step and in tune, and when your partners in the dance are clean, healthy, wholesome people like yourself.

And so it is in real life, too. The circle is gay or dull, good or bad, as we find, or fail to find, the right partners and heed, or ignore, the command of the “caller.”

Life is a series of circles, beginning with the family circle. For this happy circle, when love and faith abide in the home, we give thanks to kind and wise parents. Working, playing and praying together, the happy family moves from round to round in perfect rhythm.

Next we widen the circles to include an ever-growning number of casual or close associates: chums of our youth, neighbors, schoolmates, club, social, business and church friends. Out of these circles come eventually our more enduring friendships, our lovers and sweethearts, and the permanent partners we will choose to help us start new family circles of our own.

These permanent circles of association and affection will become for us, if we choose them widely and keep in time and tune, the right circles. In them we will find true harmony and happiness.

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF.