Three phone calls take over the Ray household in this chapter! First, Jerry who does not spend enough time at Cox Military to justify all that private school tuition, calls Julia to tell her a play of Rip Van Winkle is coming to town and he would like to take her. Mrs. Ray gives permission, having seen a production herself once. Betsy, not wanting to be left out, says she should go ask Winona immediately if she can get comps again. Mrs. Ray starts telling everyone the Rip Van Winkle story and I am sure I am not alone in wishing it were something more fun like Peter Pan or Gilbert & Sullivan. However, it is 1905 and most of our favorites haven’t been written yet! Next, Winona calls, having also heard the news, and invites Betsy, Tacy and Tib to go with. Betsy rushes across the street to tell Tacy, and they both run to Tib’s to tell her, and then all three rush to Winona’s because they are so excited. It makes one wish all one's friends lived nearby!
At the end of School Street, there are billboards promoting the show, and the girls are interested to see there is a child actress who plays Rip’s daughter. They decide they’ll wait for her at the stage door as they did Little Eva! Then they go back to Winona’s and play Authors, although Betsy is overcome by her muse and writes a poem instead. When she’s done, she reads The Curtain’s Going Up in a dreamy singsong. It’s about the excitement of the Opera House as one waits for the performance to begin. Even hard-to-impress Winona is impressed:
“The things you write ought to be published!” Winona declared.
Betsy and Tacy and Tib looked away from one another. The story Tib had printed so neatly on the sheet of pink stationery had never been heard from. As the days went by, they became sadly certain that it never would be heard from.
They were glad now that they had decided not to tell Winona about it.
Winona asks for a copy and Betsy gives her poem away. Then they act silly, make fudge, and best of all, eat the fudge (here is the Martin fudge recipe). The phone is ringing as they leave but they hurry home as it is late. However, it is the third portentous call!
When Betsy gets home, her family has a huge surprise – Mrs. Poppy called to invite Betsy, Tacy, Tib, and Winona to perform in Rip Van Winkle! Tib will play the part of Meenie, Rip’s daughter, because the usual child actress is not available and Mrs. Poppy was asked to find a local substitute. Having just seen Tib dance, she knew Tib had the talent to learn the role quickly and she will help her prepare. The other girls will play village children in non-speaking but altogether thrilling parts. Everyone is excited, and even Margaret and the hired girl, Rena, will be allowed to attend.
Betsy thinks about her poem, remembering some of the words:
“The curtain goes up,
The curtain goes up,
It’s a wonderful moment,
When the curtain goes up . . .”
“When I wrote that poem,” she thought, “I didn’t know where I’d be when the curtain went up.”
She had a vision of the great curtain rising, and herself with Tacy and Tib and Winona, looking out at the dark crowded house from the golden glory of the stage.
Question:
Betsy has finally written about something she knows! Shouldn’t she be rewarded?
Literary/Musical/Historical References:
Rip Van Winkle (1819) is a short story by the American author Washington Irving. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and wakes up 20 years later, having missed the American Revolution. The story has been adapted frequently over the last two centuries, in cartoons, films, stage plays, music, and other media. The Catskills, which are in New York, are still milking this legend.
Authors was a popular card game that originated in Massachusetts (where else) in the mid-19th century. The deck of cards consisted of eleven sets of four cards, each representing the works of eleven famous authors. The object of the game is to form complete sets of the four cards comprising the works of a particular author and it is played like Go Fish. The winner is the player with the most sets.
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