- Title: Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: A Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s
- Authors: Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough
- Publication: Dodd, Mead & Company, New York 1942
Set in the 1920s the story is about two young women who are out to tour Europe. It begins in America, crosses the Atlantic on steamship and ends in Europe.
I don't have the eloquence of Mr. Joe on Amazon so I'm going to quote from his review though beware there be spoilers in the full review.
"OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY is a travel essay that appeared in 1942. Within, co-authors and best pals Cornelia Otis Skinner from Bryn Mawr, PA and Emily Kimbrough from Indiana share the experiences of an independent trip to Europe made in 1920 when young, footloose and relatively free of parental oversight. Skinner's parents were traveling on a parallel but more or less separate itinerary.
...
The charm of this delightful narrative lies in the fact that it's a recollection of girlish innocence, naivete, and silliness told from the perspective of a more mature adulthood that achieves an engaging, self-deprecating wit."
So yeah, it's a great book. I did not know this when I was handed it to read on a road trip in 1982. I wish I remembered who gave me the book, I think it may have been Aunt Linda Rae (my mom's cousin on her father's side, but we always called her Aunt). I believe this may have been the first time I was
the reader while someone else was driving. The unfortunate victim, I mean driver was my father.
I began the book, and we chortled and laughed and drove. I think we were going to or coming from the Monolithic Dome job site near Athens Alabama. For more on domes see: https://www.monolithic.org/ I drove a 30 ton crane on that job site that built this huge dome. The grain storage dome has a diameter of 150’, a height of 75’ and an excavated portion of 20’ under the dome.
Well, back to the storyline. I remember this day clearly because the story of the pink ribbon on the sandwiches caused my father to laugh so hard he had to pull the car to the side of the road. As this was my first time reading the book I had a hard time reading it out loud in a coherent manner.
Later I found this book on Audible (~7 hours) and immediately purchased it for future road trips. The unbridled innocence, earnestness, and verve for life that these two young women demonstrated was inspiring, but their lack of common sense led to all kinds of hysterical misadventures.
In 2016 Melinda and I took another road trip from Idaho to Texas. This time we took our time birding our way through Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas. There were many awesome birds and I blogged about that part of our trip in on BlueRavenBirders.com.
- Day 1 Birding the Bear River Refuge
- Day 2 Birding Wyoming
- Day 3 Birding Nebraska
- Day 4 Birding Kansas
I think this was my third time reading/listening to the book and once again it was HILARIOUS. Melinda assures me that yes I did indeed have to pull over at the sandwich scene again. I wonder how many more times this will happen. I also smile at the memory of the scene of shuffleboard on board the ship and the hostel in France.
I never have to worry about storyline or audience with this book. It's permanently on my road trip read list. I can't wait to trap a new victim in my car.
- Jenny
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