by seneschal » Sat Sep 14, 2013 3:58 pm
Anyone energetic enough to stat up the original meddling kids, Frank and Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew? The boys began their crime-busting careers in 1929 and Nancy followed a year later. While the 1970s television incarnation portrayed them as near adults, American culture was quite different when they debuted. At 16 and 17, Frank and Joe were still very much boys, focused on after-school baseball, weekend day trips with their pals, practical jokes, being obedient and respectful towards their parents and other adult authority figures (with the exception of Bayport's incompetent police chief). They were just beginning to become interested in girls, but all social contact was in a group setting, usually at one of their parents' homes. Dating, as we know it, didn't exist, at least not for children. They used their reward money from solving crimes to acquire such high-tech gear as motorcycles and speed boats. Unlike the middle-class Hardys, Nancy Drew came from a wealthy lawyer's family, owned her own car, and in early adventures packed a revolver (something the Hardy Boys never did, even in their later escapades). Tough broad!