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Topic: Beware the Ides (actually the 12th) of January!

Posts 1 - 19 / 19
Last Reply: Apr 12, 2008 2:26 PM
Joined: Nov, 2004
Location: Puget Sound
Occupation: Website Manager
Jan 02, 2008, 1:44 PM
The prospective cutover date for the forums is now January 12, 2008. This would be a good time to retrieve your password and sign into the main site to try the new forum. In mid-January we will lock the old one and turn it into a read-only archive. Your testing of the new system will help us choose what features to change, retain and add. Thanks!
Joined: Dec, 2007
Location: Illinois
Occupation: Librarian
Jan 04, 2008, 10:06 AM
Frank,
Please delete the extra username and password that I created for myself. I was having trouble logging in and created a new account.

Thanks and good luck with the new Forum.

Cathy Bredlau
Joined: Dec, 2007
Location: Texas
Jan 06, 2008, 1:57 PM
SUCCESS AT LAST!I managed to get signed in.Happy New Year Everyone!
Shannon
Joined: Feb, 2005
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Jan 09, 2008, 7:29 PM
Hi everyone!! this new forum looks as if it is going to be more user friendly. Hey Shannon welcome back, good to see ya.

John
Joined: Nov, 2004
Location: Puget Sound
Occupation: Website Manager
Jan 23, 2008, 10:19 AM
All registration and personal info links have been removed from the header of the old forum; it is no longer possible to join it, to look up people, etc., from the header. We will soon a) delete all emails to inhibit residual spam (one of the reasons we chose to abandon the forum was that we could not hide emails on links within posts). Time to get posting in this new world, friends.
Joined: Mar, 2008
Mar 26, 2008, 4:02 PM
Hello everyone!I´m a new member here,and I´m not sure where to make my presentation. I live in Sweden, and I often read Betty´s books,hope to go to Vashon sometimes, next year perhaps.Started to love her books and family in the '70s.My mother loved them too. She was an librarian,like me.I have some bookcovers to scan if you want me to. Regards from Kersti
Joined: Feb, 2005
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Mar 27, 2008, 5:39 PM
Kersi
Welcome to out little coup. You will find ton's of great stuff on Betty and the rest of her brood, and in time lots more will be on it's way so stay tuned.

John
Joined: Apr, 2008
Apr 03, 2008, 4:36 PM
Hello.
I 'm SO excited to find this site I can't tell you. I started reading Betty books when I was 9.... actually 7 counting the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books.
I re-read her books every 10 years or so. I'm 50 now, so my books (which were my mother's) are in ribbons, barely hanging together they are so old.

I'm fortunate to live in West Seattle and can see Vashon from my window making Betty's presence a constant in my life. I've visited the homes she inhabited here and have plans to stay at the Bed and Breakfast at the 'Betty Mcdonald Farm" someday.
Here's the weird thing...I started reading her books again, totally by coincidence on her 100th birthday. I had no idea I had finished the book 2 days later. I tried googling her name, something I'd never thought about doing for some reason. There it was! And there was your site! I was amazed, but too shy to join till today and now I can't shut up. No shyness now apparently.

Anyway. I am really, really happy to know there are people out there who obviously feel obsessed as me.
I have been alone in this idolatry till now, having had to explain who she was to bored and blank faces more times than you want to know.
So, on and on I go. I am lucky to have lived in the Puget Sound for 27 years and hope that if anyone makes the sojourn up here you look me up.
Joined: Dec, 2007
Location: Pacific Northwest
Apr 03, 2008, 10:52 PM
Christysue, your post made me smile. Your enthusiasm is contagious. I envy your proximity to the houses in the Seattle area where Betty lived. I'd love to see them one day, especially the one in the U District described so lovingly in "Anybody Can Do Anything." I get to Seattle every few years; I've promised myself that the next time I go, I'm going to do a 'Betty Tour.' Thanks for your post!
Joined: Apr, 2008
Location: Minnesota
Occupation: librarian
Apr 04, 2008, 3:56 AM
Hello! For some reason I decided to Google Betty MacDonald today and found your interesting website. My late sister introduced me to Betty back in the 70s too and I've been grateful to her ever since. I also keep a Betty book on my bedside table, usually Onions in the Stew. There's something about the way Betty wrote that never grows old and is instantly calming to me. What a talent! My husband and I went to Vashon in the 80s and hope to return some day. I'm so happy to see that I'm not the only one who is a Betty addict!
Joined: Apr, 2008
Apr 04, 2008, 8:25 AM
Hey Suz,
Thanks for the warm welcome. I am serious about looking me up when you make it up here. I can't imagine anything better than doing a 'Betty Tour' with another friend of Betty's.
Seems like there are a lot of Betty friends who thought they were the only ones. (Raejay) Thank God for the internet, eh?
Joined: Apr, 2008
Location: Minnesota
Occupation: librarian
Apr 04, 2008, 12:17 PM
Christysue-I would love a tour group some day. I live in the town where the author of the Betsy Tacy books grew up--Maud Hart Lovelace--and they have a very active society and every so often have gatherings of Betsy Tacy fans from all over the world. I think Betty MacDonald deserves the same attention! What fun it would be to meet other Betty fans and see the places she described. Have you ever read "Much Laughter, A Few Tears"? It was written by a good friend of Betty's and is a lot of fun to get another perspective of Betty's life. I bought a copy off Amazon I think and can't recall the author but it's an interesting book.
Joined: Dec, 2007
Location: Pacific Northwest
Apr 04, 2008, 6:09 PM
Thanks, Christysue. I might well take you up on that, especially if you have a car. I'm from a small town and as a result I can't make decisions at 70 mph, so I don't drive in Seattle. I can chip in for gas, though! Oh, and Raejay, it's great to find another Betsy and Tacy fan too! I loved those books when I was a kid. Because of those books, I always wanted a perfume that smelled like New Mown Hay, didn't you? Those tattered hardcover volumes of my childhood are all still in our local library, as the children's librarian, God bless her forever, never culls them for book sales, despite the fact that the stories may seem somewhat dated now, because she recognizes how much little girls still love them. Same with Betty's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series. Those worn books of Betty's have been mended so many times and are still bringing pleasure to new generations of children. By the way, I suspect we're not putting this series of posts in the right area. Frank is probably rolling his eyeballs clear to Vashon. Maybe he can transfer them all to the General Discussion section? Anyway, welcome to Raejay as well, and now I'm off to find where Maud Hart Lovelace grew up. Thank goodness for Google.
Joined: Feb, 2005
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Apr 04, 2008, 8:49 PM
Christysue and Raejay, welcome to our little coup. If you spend some time looking about you will find posts from past forums and, if Frank brought them with him, some of my past newsletters. I first discovered Betty almost 40 years ago. I hope that you will, like me, develope some verly lasting friendships along the way.

John
Joined: Apr, 2008
Apr 07, 2008, 3:28 PM
Holy Smokes! Betty McDonald and Betsy and Tacy too! Dang, can this get any better?
I had no idea I was entering into such a treasure trove of literary giants! I can't be happier.
I have a car and will be happy to shove everyone in and cart us all around to the Betty hot spots.
I've pretty much hit them all, including Firland.
I had searched for 'the farm' with no success, but that was pre-FOBM website. Thanks for all the hard detective work everyone has done, we can probably find it now, no problem.
John, I did what you said, reading the past forums and the 2006 year of newsletters. (Are there more newsletters? I am remarkably lame maneuvering through even well laid out websites like this.
If there are more, I definitely want to read them.)
That picture of Dede knocked me out.
Actually, I stumbled on her obituary in the paper years ago and felt like I'd been zapped by lightening. I was stunned as I started recognizing the names and realizing who it was,,,, but alas, that was pre-FOBM and I had NO ONE to share the shock and awe with. I saved it for several years and probably still have it,,,, somewhere....but God knows where.
Yep. It was tough being what I thought was the only Betty fan in existence. Again, so glad to know you are here. And yes, Frank....go ahead and lead me to the right forum. I'm a dullard and need all the direction I can get!
Joined: Feb, 2005
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Apr 08, 2008, 10:41 AM
Hi ChristySue,

Thank you. I really enoy putting the newsletters together but, as of late I have had a case of the lazies :). I will say that I am currently working on a newsletter and it wil be ready shortly. I was awarethat Dee Dee had passed but didn't have alot of information on it. It was thanks to Dee Dee's daughter-in-law that I received her obit along with a copy of her wedding announcement. Betty's family has been a great help to me in researching her life.

Frank is going to go coronary but, to be honest, I just post any ole where. I have been with the forum since 2005 and still have a wee bit of trouble figuring out what goes where :). If you have any questions on Betty please feel free to post them and I wil respond as soon as I can.

Again, welcome to the FOBMD!

John

ps; if you get the chance and there is still alink check out the Seattle Press On LIne forum-it is our original coup.
Joined: Dec, 2007
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Apr 11, 2008, 11:37 AM
Where can I see the photograph of Dede that someone mentioned? I have also never seen any photographs of Betty when she was in her teens/twenties before she married Don, or any earlier ones of Mary, Alison, Dede or Cleve. Does anyone have these that they could share?
Joined: Feb, 2005
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Apr 12, 2008, 1:50 PM
if My newsletters are still available there should be one of Deedee there.
Joined: Nov, 2004
Location: Puget Sound
Occupation: Website Manager
Apr 12, 2008, 2:22 PM
Reports of my having medical problems as a result of anything you folks do are somewhat exaggerated. :-) In fact I just logged in to tease John about the difference between coups and coops. As in, "it is quite a coup to have all these folks in the coop." Anyhow nice work, all. Looks like we're restarted with some new friends and some new discussion threads. Very cool.

I would like to see this thread continue in General Discussion instead of here under Housekeeping. So please continue at the link below.
Joined: Nov, 2004
Location: Puget Sound
Occupation: Website Manager
Apr 12, 2008, 2:26 PM
"And," he added for emphasis, "l will be locking this thread in a couple of days."
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