5 ms·

I read some nancy drew from the local library as a kid but I preferred the hardy boys. They had a secret hideout in their junkyard, a caravan buried under junk

I read some nancy drew from the local library as a kid but I preferred the hardy boys. They had a secret hideout in their junkyard, a caravan buried under junk. The bad guys always seemed to drive a black sedan though I had no idea what a sedan was.

5555624 8y ago
The junkyard hideout was the Three Investigators, not the Hardy Boys. As far as I remember, the Hardy Boys didn't have a hideout.
- mhomde 8y ago
  Christ I almost forgot about Three Investigators, but I really liked them at the time. "The green backs" as I thought of them (Nancy Drew was red) Probably one of those things you should never re-read though. Using Alfred Hitchcock as "cover author" must have really paid off https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/three-investigators-detective-fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/thre... "The Three Investigators were created by Robert Arthur, who wrote the first few books and then oversaw and edited the rest of the series. It was he who had the brainwave of having Alfred Hitchcock as the patron of the team. Hitch introduced each case, and often called them in to set them off on their latest adventure. It was this intrusion of real life into a fictional world that cemented my relationship with the Three Investigators. Could these stories possibly be true ... ?" And... "The real magic, though, was in the boys' headquarters, hidden among the piles of junk in Uncle Titus's scrapyard. Built from an abandoned trailer, the secret base was accessed via a series of ingenious secret passages, with the codenames Green Gate One, Tunnel Two, and Red Gate Rover – the latter so named because it was hidden behind a painting of a dog."
  - teh_klev 8y ago
    I ripped through around 15 or 20 of these one summer holiday (and slightly beyond) back in the late 70's or early 80's - I think I was around 11-12 years old. They were certainly more prevalent on Scottish holiday shop book stands than The Hardy Boys (which I never got around to reading - by the time school went back in I'd moved onto James Herbert horrors which scared the bejesus out of me :) ). The Three Investigators were truly immersive and fun to read. You'd hardly get a peep from me once I got stuck into one. I think I was reading almost one a day and would burn all my holiday pocket money on them. I didn't read them in any particular order and just grabbed them whenever I found a new copy I hadn't read before. I reckon there must be a box of these somewhere in my dad's attic, it'd be fun recover them to see how they stand up.
    - jgamman 8y ago
      we had similar childhoods - those Rats books were like a horror movie that lasted for days till i finished each book ;-)
      - teh_klev 8y ago
        Did The Incredible Melting Man (the novel based on the film) figure in your childhood as well? That was a bit of a shocker for 12 year old to read back in 1979/80. That one gave me some sleepless nights for a long time :)
  - barking 8y ago
    Wow, I was pretty certain I never read the three investigators but I am must be wrong and mixing up different series! Getting old! I was pretty sure the Hardy Boys had a base like that too. And a friend called Chuck or something. They had some kind of a lever thing to raise some of the junk that concealed the entrance to the base. I was searching for a reference and found this 8 year old guardian article that mentions both series and the junkyard base. https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/three-investigators-detective-fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/thre...
ubermonkey 8y ago
I'm totally there for you on "sedan" and other throwback words. I'm 48, so I read the Hardy Boys books mostly in the mid to late 70s. That whole era seemed to be stuck in time; lots of pop culture sort of pushed as "current" was clearly from at least 10 to 20 years before, but even as a kid it was pretty clear there was a disconnect. The Hardys never watched TV, for example. They used terms like "jalopy" and "sedan". Etc. I assume the mismatch was partly because of the rapid societal changes that took root starting in the 60s, plus a sort of refusal to acknowledge those by the generation just ahead of the boomers that were really still in fundamental control through the 80s.
- lowercased 8y ago
  > They used terms like "jalopy" and "sedan". Etc. And Chet was rarely fat, but often 'portly', 'heavy-set', 'chunky' or 'stout'. :)
  - barking 8y ago
    I was thinking of chuck but you're right it was chet!
    - lb1lf 8y ago
      ...or Chester, as his aunt (I believe) insisted on calling him - probably the only person to use his given name! In retrospect (I read 75-80 Hardy Boys books as a kid, many of them over and over), it is amazing how formula-based the story trajectories were and how one-dimensional all the characters were. I bet with some practice, an author could churn out a book in the time it took me to read one.
  - ubermonkey 8y ago
    That part always bothered me, since their portly chum and I share a name.
- greggyb 8y ago
  Is "sedan" really a throwback? This seemsa part of current vernacular to me, and I have lived in several different regions of the US.
ticmasta 8y ago
and caves! always a cave...

5555624 8y ago

The junkyard hideout was the Three Investigators, not the Hardy Boys. As far as I remember, the Hardy Boys didn't have a hideout.

mhomde 8y ago
Christ I almost forgot about Three Investigators, but I really liked them at the time. "The green backs" as I thought of them (Nancy Drew was red) Probably one of those things you should never re-read though. Using Alfred Hitchcock as "cover author" must have really paid off https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/three-investigators-detective-fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/thre... "The Three Investigators were created by Robert Arthur, who wrote the first few books and then oversaw and edited the rest of the series. It was he who had the brainwave of having Alfred Hitchcock as the patron of the team. Hitch introduced each case, and often called them in to set them off on their latest adventure. It was this intrusion of real life into a fictional world that cemented my relationship with the Three Investigators. Could these stories possibly be true ... ?" And... "The real magic, though, was in the boys' headquarters, hidden among the piles of junk in Uncle Titus's scrapyard. Built from an abandoned trailer, the secret base was accessed via a series of ingenious secret passages, with the codenames Green Gate One, Tunnel Two, and Red Gate Rover – the latter so named because it was hidden behind a painting of a dog."
- teh_klev 8y ago
  I ripped through around 15 or 20 of these one summer holiday (and slightly beyond) back in the late 70's or early 80's - I think I was around 11-12 years old. They were certainly more prevalent on Scottish holiday shop book stands than The Hardy Boys (which I never got around to reading - by the time school went back in I'd moved onto James Herbert horrors which scared the bejesus out of me :) ). The Three Investigators were truly immersive and fun to read. You'd hardly get a peep from me once I got stuck into one. I think I was reading almost one a day and would burn all my holiday pocket money on them. I didn't read them in any particular order and just grabbed them whenever I found a new copy I hadn't read before. I reckon there must be a box of these somewhere in my dad's attic, it'd be fun recover them to see how they stand up.
  - jgamman 8y ago
    we had similar childhoods - those Rats books were like a horror movie that lasted for days till i finished each book ;-)
    - teh_klev 8y ago
      Did The Incredible Melting Man (the novel based on the film) figure in your childhood as well? That was a bit of a shocker for 12 year old to read back in 1979/80. That one gave me some sleepless nights for a long time :)
- barking 8y ago
  Wow, I was pretty certain I never read the three investigators but I am must be wrong and mixing up different series! Getting old! I was pretty sure the Hardy Boys had a base like that too. And a friend called Chuck or something. They had some kind of a lever thing to raise some of the junk that concealed the entrance to the base. I was searching for a reference and found this 8 year old guardian article that mentions both series and the junkyard base. https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/three-investigators-detective-fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/sep/23/thre...

ubermonkey 8y ago

I'm totally there for you on "sedan" and other throwback words. I'm 48, so I read the Hardy Boys books mostly in the mid to late 70s. That whole era seemed to be stuck in time; lots of pop culture sort of pushed as "current" was clearly from at least 10 to 20 years before, but even as a kid it was pretty clear there was a disconnect. The Hardys never watched TV, for example. They used terms like "jalopy" and "sedan". Etc. I assume the mismatch was partly because of the rapid societal changes that took root starting in the 60s, plus a sort of refusal to acknowledge those by the generation just ahead of the boomers that were really still in fundamental control through the 80s.

lowercased 8y ago
> They used terms like "jalopy" and "sedan". Etc. And Chet was rarely fat, but often 'portly', 'heavy-set', 'chunky' or 'stout'. :)
- barking 8y ago
  I was thinking of chuck but you're right it was chet!
  - lb1lf 8y ago
    ...or Chester, as his aunt (I believe) insisted on calling him - probably the only person to use his given name! In retrospect (I read 75-80 Hardy Boys books as a kid, many of them over and over), it is amazing how formula-based the story trajectories were and how one-dimensional all the characters were. I bet with some practice, an author could churn out a book in the time it took me to read one.
- ubermonkey 8y ago
  That part always bothered me, since their portly chum and I share a name.
greggyb 8y ago
Is "sedan" really a throwback? This seemsa part of current vernacular to me, and I have lived in several different regions of the US.

ticmasta 8y ago

and caves! always a cave...