Faith and Pierson Chambers and their huge gigantic cabin
I just started rereading SS7, Baby-sitters at Shadow Lake, which has always been, I guess, my least-favorite Super Special. Or maybe it's just the least-memorable as far as I'm concerned; I almost never think of it at all when I'm thinking about the BSC books. (But that makes it a little fresher and more entertaining when I do reread it.)
So it starts out with this letter from Watson's aunt Faith Chambers, talking about how they haven't seen him in forever (almost twenty years, Watson says after he reads it) and she wants to get to know his kids and his new wife (not that she ever met the old wife, presumably) and the kind of man he's become. And then she goes on to say that they were wondering if he'd like to inherit their cabin at Shadow Lake, and why doesn't his family go up there this summer for awhile--you know, without Faith and Pierson.
It just seems so weird that they haven't seen their nephew in twenty years, and they miss him and want to meet his family, and they're ready to GIVE HIM A HOUSE, but instead of inviting him to come visit them, they invite him to go somewhere else. And we never do observe that Faith and Pierson ever see Watson or meet his family, do we? Are F&P mentioned at all when they return to Shadow Lake in other books? They only live in Pennsylvania, it's not like it would be difficult to arrange a visit for the family that jets off to Hawaii and Florida and cross-country road trips on a whim.
The other thing: this cabin is HUGE, as you probably know. It can house like 25 people, because two of the four bedrooms are giant dorms. Doesn't it seem just a bit weird that these two old people own such a huge place? It would make sense if they hosted a lot of big family visits (although, still, there are only two normal bedrooms, so if there were more than two married couples the extra ones would have to sleep on bunk beds), but, if that were the case, don't you think Watson might have been there at some point since he was twelve years old? And he doesn't mention seeing any of his other relatives there, that I've seen; it sounds very much like it was just him and his aunt and uncle. The house is pretty small otherwise; if they had once used the big bedrooms but didn't anymore, why wouldn't F&P have converted one of them into some other kind of space? We rent a beach house every year so I've seen descriptions and pictures of some houses that are designed to house a LOT of people, but I've never seen one with dormitories holding SIX sets of bunk beds because who wants to live like they're in military school when they're on vacation?
There's probably SOME plausible explanation that could be contrived, but I think it's a lot more likely that AMM just designed the perfect vacation house for the Brewer-Thomases and never thought about whether it made any sense or not.
P.S. Can you call a house "rambling" if the shape is a perfect rectangle? I'm pretty sure you can't. Even though Dawn does. Also, oh my God, the Brewers are just SHOCKED to find that it may be difficult to fit luggage for twenty people into three cars, only one of which is a station wagon, along with those twenty people, a cat, and a dog.
So it starts out with this letter from Watson's aunt Faith Chambers, talking about how they haven't seen him in forever (almost twenty years, Watson says after he reads it) and she wants to get to know his kids and his new wife (not that she ever met the old wife, presumably) and the kind of man he's become. And then she goes on to say that they were wondering if he'd like to inherit their cabin at Shadow Lake, and why doesn't his family go up there this summer for awhile--you know, without Faith and Pierson.
It just seems so weird that they haven't seen their nephew in twenty years, and they miss him and want to meet his family, and they're ready to GIVE HIM A HOUSE, but instead of inviting him to come visit them, they invite him to go somewhere else. And we never do observe that Faith and Pierson ever see Watson or meet his family, do we? Are F&P mentioned at all when they return to Shadow Lake in other books? They only live in Pennsylvania, it's not like it would be difficult to arrange a visit for the family that jets off to Hawaii and Florida and cross-country road trips on a whim.
The other thing: this cabin is HUGE, as you probably know. It can house like 25 people, because two of the four bedrooms are giant dorms. Doesn't it seem just a bit weird that these two old people own such a huge place? It would make sense if they hosted a lot of big family visits (although, still, there are only two normal bedrooms, so if there were more than two married couples the extra ones would have to sleep on bunk beds), but, if that were the case, don't you think Watson might have been there at some point since he was twelve years old? And he doesn't mention seeing any of his other relatives there, that I've seen; it sounds very much like it was just him and his aunt and uncle. The house is pretty small otherwise; if they had once used the big bedrooms but didn't anymore, why wouldn't F&P have converted one of them into some other kind of space? We rent a beach house every year so I've seen descriptions and pictures of some houses that are designed to house a LOT of people, but I've never seen one with dormitories holding SIX sets of bunk beds because who wants to live like they're in military school when they're on vacation?
There's probably SOME plausible explanation that could be contrived, but I think it's a lot more likely that AMM just designed the perfect vacation house for the Brewer-Thomases and never thought about whether it made any sense or not.
P.S. Can you call a house "rambling" if the shape is a perfect rectangle? I'm pretty sure you can't. Even though Dawn does. Also, oh my God, the Brewers are just SHOCKED to find that it may be difficult to fit luggage for twenty people into three cars, only one of which is a station wagon, along with those twenty people, a cat, and a dog.