Yesterday my husband and I stopped in my favorite antique store near Fayetteville, Long Ago Antiques. From the street, the shop appeared small, but like the wardrobe entrance to Narnia, each room led into another magical space filled with treasures. Lost in another world for over an hour, we almost made it out without spending anything more than time, until I spied three old Nancy Drew books. I cannot pass up a Nancy Drew book…

Blue tweed covers. $5 each. One was even copyrighted 1930!  A real find…

And written inside The Ghost of Blackwood Hall…

This book belongs to: May Gertrude Brightwell, Box L84, Clinton, Maryland…

On the back page, May had written a song list—like a modern day iTunes playlist…Songs including Great Balls of Fire, You Send Me, At the Hop. Hit songs from 1957.

For a collector, these handwritten notations lessen the value.

I think the notations add value.

This book sent me into my own mystery – the mystery of May Gertrude Brightwell. According to the 1940 Maryland Census Record, she was born in 1939, had one brother, two step-brothers and a step-sister. She lived with her parents and grandmother. Based on the year of her favorite hit songs, she was around 18 at the time she owned the book. 

According to Google, she still lives in Maryland and is now 73 years old. I wonder how her book came to be in Fayetteville, Arkansas?

Did she love to read?

Did she love Nancy Drew as much as I?

Of course, the real Nancy Drew would drive up to Maryland in her blue convertible and interview Ms. Brightwell, or at the very least call her.

I think I’ll just leave it to my imagination.

You Send Me, Sam Cooke