NPR 早间谈话节目25分钟 2023-04-25

Do it i think that's important i mean you know we grew up. In an era you and i tarry rate. When if a girls succumbed. To this。Goes， ever。 had sexual feelings than. But i did. And yet i knew. That it would be very dangerous for me to go all the way quote quote. I knew that it would be dangerous. For me to go all the way and actually have intercourse i knew that because？There were girls in my class. Who got pregnant and i. I know what that did to their lives i mean that changed their lives. And i was very interested in sex but i was careful. III had the pill by the time. I tell i was ready so we're a kid。 hahahaha，but you know that so there wasn't there wasn't that fear. But there was a sense of you know. If you don't want to get pregnant you'd better do something to prevent it. So um？Let's take another sharp break here and little it talks them more if you're just journing us my guest is judy bloom. And there's a new documentary about her called judy bloom forever which is streaming on amazon and there's a new movie adaptation of her famous novel are you there a god it's me margaret which opens on friday. We'll be right back after a short break i'm terry gross and this is fresh air. The new bower family foundation supports WHY wise fresh air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation. Support for npr comes from this station. And from apple music including apple music classical a new app designed for the nuances of classical music. Included with select apple music subscription. And available now in the app store. And from indeed. Committed to helping businesses attract interview and higher candidates。Businesses can invite candidates to apply then schedule and conduct virtual interviews all in one place. Indeed com slash npr. This is fresh air i am terry gross. Let's get back to my interview with judy bloom who became famous for her preteen and teen novels like are you there got its me margaret forever. Deanie and super fudge. She also became famous for having several of her book's band because the story is involved puberty and menstruation first love and first encounters of sexuality. And in one book a reference to masturbation. Bloom has also written bestselling adult novels including wifi and smart women. Now argue there god has been adapted into a movie that opens friday and adaptations of superfuge and summer sisters are in the works. As well as a series reimagining her novel forever。She knows with her husband in key west florida where they founded a bookstore one section is devoted to band books. Your books have meant so much in the lives of your young readers because you know they were hungry for this kind of material that spoke honestly. About puberty and first love and first kisses and. Beyond first kisses. And a lot of your readers wrote you. To share their secrets to ask you for your advice. There is like cartons and cartons and cartons of those letters now in the yale archive and you read some of those letters in the movies some of the letter writers. Who were found. As adults read the letters that they wrote you in their teens. But it's interesting that you felt the sense of responsibility。To write back to them i don't know how many. Of the readers you actually. Responded to but. What did you feel that sense of responsibility to correspond back as opposed to just having a standard. Thank you for your note. I don't want to mislead. The listeners here thinking that. I wrote back to every kid because at one point i was getting two thous，and letters a month so. That wouldn't have been possible but. But i read them and。Um some of them just. I don't know how you could possibly. Ignore them i mean they were so. In need and they. They trusted me. And at one point. Many years down the line. I did have to consult a professional because. I got to the point were. There were kids who i？Felt i had to save and i didn't know how to save them. And um。And the therapist that i saw about this helped me. Underst，and that that wasn't my job. That i couldn't do that but what i could do was be. Um. I could be. A trusted adult. Friend. You know you've said that your own children didn't come to you for advice。In the way that your readers did. How did you interpret that what did you think that that said to you both as an author and as a mother. Well. I think um. My kids were like。The other kids the kids who were writing to me sometimes and. It's easier to tell somebody. Who's not at the breakfast table the next morning. Somebody， you might never meet somebody who might not even be real but you believe. That she is？啊，I was in a perfect mother you know. I wasn't the mother that all those kids. Thought. I would be if only i could be their mother. It's hard it's so hard i mean i wanted to be. I want it desperately to be the kind of parent. That my kids. Could come to and sometimes they did. Sometimes they did。You know they could ask me questions. They certainly knew that and they would get. Answers to their questions. Things that we're going on in their own lives. They didn't always. Come to me. Did they read your books did they know that you. Or a sympathetic figure in terms of understanding the world of teenagers. Yeah， preteens mostly yes they absolutely. Read my books then my books very well。How do that affect your relationship with them. We could talk about characters in other books because. Talking about characters of so much easier than. Talking about. Yourself or. Your mom it's so it's not me and you。It's karen and her mother or you。 know. Since another character. And her parent. And so we were sometimes able to do that？It got harder when they were. Mid-teenage years i mean if those are hard years， you。 know？What can i say we've come through it. Thank goodness did you feel that. Although your experiences really helped you in writing your novels for. Preteens. That by the time your children were teenagers they were living in a different world than the one you grew up and. When they were teenagers when they were in high school. An even late tune you're high. We were living？In the mexico. It was the70s. Um. It was a different time. Certainly a different time. It was druggy and sexy and. Um very different. And. And it made it very hard made it very hard for me. Because you。 know i've。I've always taken the kids side. That doesn't necessarily. Make. You a better parent it might make you a less effect of parent. And how so. Because you are。You are seeing it through their eyes. And. You know did i set up. Enough rules i don't think so。And also remember where i was then. I was. A mother who had never. Rebelled. I had never stepped outside. Of the rules really. I had a very. Traditional fifties. First marriage. That i left after sixteen years。And i wanted. That70s freedom. I wanted to be. You know i wanted to be. A young woman then with flying hair and. Listening to music. I never did try drugs but. Um you know i. I wanted to be out there. But it was too late？Or you are too confined by。Your marriages. Oh i didn't do that. I went out there are you didn't do that okay i went out there yes i mean. I wanted to try at all i mean. That's doesn't make. For a great parent. To be. A teenage rebel. When your children？Being teenage rebels. Let me reintroduce you again. If you're just joining us my guest is judy bloom and there's a new documentary about her called judy bloom forever which is streaming on amazon and there's a new movie adaptation of her novel are you there god it's me margaret which opens on friday. We'll be right back this is fresh air. Support for npr comes from this station. And from dignity memorial dedicated to celebrating each life with compassion and attention to detail. They helped to plan life celebrations now so families don't have to later. Learn more at dignity memorial com. And from the estate of joan b crock. Whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio。And seeks to help npr be the model for high-quality journalism in the twenty first century. This is fresh air let's get back to my interview with judy bloom there's a new documentary about her called judy bloom forever which is streaming on amazon prime the new movie adaptation of her novel are you there god it's me margaret. Opens on friday。You grow up in the fifties and. You met europe first husband when you are a sophomore in college. I think you've got married before you graduated and then you had your first child soon after. He was already a lawyer， you didn't know who you were yet。And so. After that you became. On the outside a kind of conventional mother homemaker wife in suburban new jersey were none of the women in your neighborhood worked。And neither did， you until you started writing a few years later。Yeah， but i started writing early on i'm in a started. Really you。 know i had a first career made felt pictures in my basement and i sold them to bloomingdales which was a very hetty experience. I carried them in his suitcase and. And took the train into new york with. My samples and they bought them they paid me nine dollars. A piece and they sold them for eighteen dollars and it was wait describe one of these it was a thrill i. I bought sabrick um. In the little fabric store in. Westfield new jersey and i。Had little boards that i made them on i made. Balarinas and soldiers and. It was a picture that you hung on。Your child's wall and it had. Your child's name on and. And um. It could they could. Give me a color scheme if they want it. They were made to otter. And it was i。It sounds so ridiculous i can't even tell you. How thrilling it was for me to do that because suddenly. I had work i needed desperately to have creative work. It could have been any creative work. You know but these were. The possibilities that i saw. Were was work that i could do at home. With the kids of. But after a couple of years. My fingers。I have. A lot of allergies and i had a bad reaction to the glue i was using. So i had to find another career and that's when i started to write. When you. Discovered feminitum. Is it exciting to find women like you who want to break out of the traditional role they had been cast in. Yes that was very exciting that didn't really happen for me. Until um. I started to write and. And get published my early books and。Maybe go to some meetings actually you。 know i took a class. And even that was a huge thing. That class was in the sixties and it was some. At my alma mater and wayu and it was a continuing education class in writing for. Kids through the twins and. It spoke to me because that's what i was starting to do. And i decided to take that class that was. I know nobody can underst，and this to day but that was such. Big thing in my life that every monday. Um i was going to？Get on a bus and go to new york city. And i wasn't going to be there for supper and my. First husband was going to have to. Deal with the kids. And he took them out you know。 he took them out someplace. For spicati or hamburgers. Um. But he did it and. And he put them to bed they were asleep when i came home. That was the kind of the first？Thing i did aside from the felt pictures. You know for me and something that i needed to do. And i did it. You divorce your husband after six your first husband after sixteen years of marriage. And you said， you real us that you were living the life your mother wanted you to lead and it was time to lead the life you wanted. Yeah， you。 know。 he was it. I have to say。 he's dead now. He was um. A good and loyal person. But？From another era. It seemed that he was from another era and he wasn't. You know， you wasn't stepping up to the plate. To to the new era of of the sixties and. Hidden want me to either he really. He wanted me. The way i was. When we met and married. I mean he wanted me to stay his little wife feet. And？He didn't mind. That i was writing this was before i was. Even publish he didn't mind it as long as it didn't. Interfere at all with. His way of life you know that dinner would be ready when he came home and. I was expected to take care of the kids and run the household. And he was the one who was earning living. The way， you're putting it it sounds like he was allowing you. To write. Maybe that's true i don't know i mean？I think i would have i don't know what i would have done. Would i have i don't. I don't think i would have. I don't think i would have stopped writing because he would say i don't want you to do this. He never said that he's. He made jokes you。 know. I just have to buy judy paper in pencils and she's happy. It's like. Apparent would say oh give him crayons and a and paper and what a happy child. Oh， that's the way it was哈哈。When you decided you were going to. And the marriage. As a writer. Did did you plan out the words you wanted to use did you write a draft so that you'd have out clear in your mind. Because this was going to be such a consequential moment. I actually wrote a letter to my children. Um. Trying to explain i don't know what i have trying to explain you know. The usual we both love you and roar but this is what we're going to do and. We had been friends my husband and i？We have been friends and. It was much much harder. To leave an. Be divorced then i ever dreamed it would be. That was in o. Part of my fantasy. It was not easy it was the hardest time in my life. And i jump. You know from that safe. Marriage marriage that my mother？Really did love for me because. He was a good provider and that was her number one concern. And i jumped. Into. A second marriage that. Never should have been. A marriage in omedica and a plane and. I thought this was really exciting and i've followed him to england where he was living. And we got married the kids were with me of course. And that was the true disaster。You know the first marriage was. Ah i want to say that divorce was acceptable but the first marriage was much more understandable. And the second marriage was. Duty going through. Her. Very late adolescent rebellion. Um. But still. I married him. Because the authority figures in my life。Said i， had to. That was my mother and my former husband. You have to. Be married you can't have the kids. If you're not married. And. And so i married him those. Do it but you know it. Just one of many stupid mistakes yes we all have our mistakes. Well let's take a short break here and then we'll talk some more if you're just journing us my guest is judy bloom there's a new documentary about her screaming on amazon prime called judy bloom forever。And friday. A movie adaptation of her novel are you there god it's me margaret. Opens and theaters. Will be right back after a short break. This is fresh air。