The Rowdies

Setting The Luck of the Buttons in 1929 gave me an excuse to peruse newspapers from that year. One of my most charming discoveries was The Brooklyn Standard Union. In the company of headlines like "Woman's Wit Foils Bandits After Payroll" and "Florence Berger Not Worried" I found this gem:

McGUINNESS After Park Rowdies
   Alderman Peter McGUINNESS is making good his threat to war on rowdies who
visit the parks in Greenpoint. He has been seen strolling about the parks for
several nights.

And from there, Goodhue's band of rapscallions, the Rowdies, were born. Luther Tingvold, Walter Williams, Bess McCrea, and Finn and Frankie Chacey mostly lump about parks and alleys looking tough but one never knows where they'll turn up or what their intentions may be. 

Midwest readers, I will see you soon! Come hear more about Tugs, the Rowdies, and other Button tales in St. Paul at The Red Balloon on Saturday or in Iowa City at Prairie Lights on Sunday, 2pm both days. 

Through the Lens

Tugs looked down through her camera’s viewfinder and pivoted slowly all the way around and down and up. It was like watching a movie, seeing the bandstand, the bakery, the soft evening sky go by in that tiny frame. These were the same ordinary sights she’d been seeing her whole life, but suddenly they were sharp and beautiful, like little jewels collected in a box. (The Luck of the Buttons, p 102)

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Box, the Hawkeye model. It was my summer of being twelve and Dutch Elm Disease was rampant in Minneapolis. City workers painted red lines around the trunks of doomed trees on the boulevards on my street, and though the infected trees appeared healthy, they were to be cut down within the week.

I remember standing in the middle of the street looking down through the lens of my Brownie at the long rows of elms. I noticed for the first time the perfect arch they made of the three-block length of 47^th Avenue. I couldn’t save our beloved trees, but the act of taking a picture made me feel empowered, like I was witnessing and preserving a small piece of my neighborhood’s history. 

It was a piece of Kodak camera history that led me to setting The Luck of the Buttons in the year 1929. The first Brownie came out in 1900 and was made expressly to put photography in the hands of children. In 1930, to celebrate the company's 50^th Anniversary, Kodak gave free Brownie cameras to children who turned twelve that year. 

I set my story in 1929 because I wanted Tugs to have a camera before most of her friends. I chose the Number 2 F Model for Tugs, which came in five colors. She was able to get her favorite color, green. And, lucky me, I found one just like it on ebay. 82 years old and it still works!

Button Up

I'm playing the piano again after a long break. My fingers are slow and clumsy so I'm starting with my trusty childhood practice book Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises. Published in 1900, my copy has penciled marks from generations of piano teachers and it brings me right back to those hours sitting at the bench with only the ticking metronome for company. 

The Luck of the Buttons is set in 1929, and while Tugs Button is not musical, her best friend Aggie Millhouse escapes piano practice by putting a roll in the player piano. Today we've got ipods, ipads, electronic keyboards that play accompaniment, even keyboard staircases. Yet the sight of this piano playing itself still amazes.

Here's a player piano playing a hit from 1929: Button Up Your Overcoat.