The Sheila Variations

Clue:

A laugh-out-loud funny book. The true story of a family, written by 2 members of that family. The father of this family was a famous guy - famous for doing ... er ... something I won't tell ... and this is kind of a tribute to this wacko father and a wacko childhood.

Waitasec. Is this Cheaper by the Dozen? When I was in school up in Maine, on and off, they read it aloud to us in snippets for weeks. I don't remember the names of the authors, though. Unless I'm totally thinking of something else.

Yes. Cheaper by the Dozen. By Ernestine and Frank Galbraith.

I tried teaching myself to touch-type with a variation on their method. Ultimately the best I could do was to tape over all the keys, and then when my boss went to use my typewriter - remember them? - he was mightily annoyed.

Oh, my gosh.

That one was bothering me ALL NIGHT.

I KNEW I had read that last line in a book, but couldn't guess where. Yes, Cheaper by the Dozen. Remember reading it as a young teenager.

I SO wanted to be a part of that family.

ricki - I especially loved the fact that it was in the 1920s - and all the older girls were getting into the flapper thing, and climbing out their bedroom windows to go meet their boyfriends ... etc.

It seemed so cool!