Polly Chandler's bookstore lays in a proper quantity of Christmas

books, to be sure. Polly Chandler's! In 1973, when I was nine years

old, Polly Chandler stocked the Tom Swift books; and when I told

my folks I wanted the entire Tom Swift collection (fifty volumes

or so!) they got them for me at Polly's. I can still picture the covers

of those books, and remember snippets of the stories: in one,

Tom and his friends build an electromagnetic highway in the

skies above a South American jungle; in another, one of Tom's

friends takes a rocket voyage into space; his fellow astronaut is

a bullying mutual acquaintance. Tom Swift and his friend devise

a simple code; if the old bully is up to his old tricks, the friend

will radio mission control that 'this black void is hard to take.'

The message is sent! A daring space rescue ensues!

 {Forward to 4 of 7}