WITH A MERRY HEART
By
A welcome addition to the author's family memoirs begun in 1971 with A Joyful Noise. This time the author chronicles her own fiercely cherished pleasures on the way to young adulthood. She lovingly roams about the comfortable house in Holyoke, Massachusetts, as well as the whooping menage at the seashore preserve of grandmother Baba--""small, straight-backed""--who decorously referred to garbage as ""gibbage."" Mrs. Gillespie recalls for us all the miracles of the Twenties her contemporaries grew up with: the aura of Hinds Honey and Almond, polishing horse chestnuts in a pocket, the great mean games like ""Bye-low Froggie dear""--in which dear baby sibling was twisted tight, very tight, in a blanket. Against that energetic, high-spirited background, the author evokes not only the warmth and humor of an immensely attractive family, but the towering delights and landmark tempests of childhood.