The Girls' Team

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I know I've mentioned here on the blog that my granddaughter (who will be TEN tomorrow!! Happy birthday, Wren!) is playing soccer, and how much I LOVE going to her games. I tried to get a good action shot last night but it's hard when they're moving so fast!

Obviously, I love supporting her, but I also love supporting all the girls. It's been fascinating to watch their personalities and characters develop over the couple of years the team has been together, and to see their strengths in the way they play and interact with one another. I love that they are such good sports–more important than any athletic achievements, in my opinion. They're good natured when they lose and they're kind to their opponents. You wouldn't guess Wren's team lost from this picture with her dad!

My daughter played sports, too (as she reminds me!), a couple of years of soccer and then softball up into early middle school, when she switched to gymnastics. 

I, however, did not, and I envy these girls the experience. Before Title IX in 1972, a few high schools had girls' basketball and volleyball teams, but there was nothing organized for younger girls. Girls were expected to want to be cheerleaders and that was pretty much it.

Would I have been any more athletic or coordinated if the opportunities had been available? Maybe not, but I'm sorry I missed that boat, and really glad I get to experience it vicariously!

How about you, dear REDs? Did you play sports? Did/do your kids/grandkids play sports? And did you love it or hate it?

RHYS BOWEN:  I had sporty high achieving parents. My mom was a schools high jump champion. My dad a good soccer and cricket player. I started tennis when I was 8 and it was a big part of my life until I was in my 60s and got a damaged disc between my shoulder blades. I played for school, college and in various groups. In school I was also on the netball team. In college captain of table tennis ( in which I still play a mean game!) 

Going to a girl’s school we had every sport offered to us. My own kids started on swim teams when they were five and some moved to water polo ( still an important sport for Jane and daughter Meghan) They play golf and pickleball. 

I also watch any sport on TV ( except darts and bowling. Too boring) 

I should add that the one sport I hated was watching my grandson in high school wrestling! Horrifying! 

HALLIE EPHRON: There were virtually no sports for women (pre Title 9) when I was in grammar school. We had “gym” every day but all I remember is lining up in size places and taking a shot at the basket and playing dodge ball. In high school, having to take swimming was pure torture, and I had a very frequently recurring “period” that excused me.

Things are so much better now. My daughter played soccer – on the girls team and a coed team. She liked the girls team better. My granddaughter is on the swim team and does gymnastics and (heaven help me) “cheer.” It’s great, but exhausting from a parent’s perspective, having to show up (which we WANT to do) at so many events and cheer her on.

DEBS: That's a lot, Hallie! Wren is still in gymnastics, but it's very low key, and I'm not sure how much longer that will last with the demands of soccer.

JENN McKINLAY: YES! Basketball, volleyball, and judo as a youth. Volleyball as an adult. And now, I’m taking Tai Chi in an adult ed class because why not? I was a kid in the seventies and a tween/teen in the eighties so sports were a big thing for girls. Mostly, I got lucky that I had a sibling less than a year older than me and he included me in everything so I also played hockey, skateboarded, kayaked, hiked, fished, boogie boarded, and skied. I’m sure I’m missing some stuff, too. Looking back, we were very busy in the best possible way. 

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Argh. ALL I wanted was to be on some team, any team, anything. There were no girls teams, though, not formally, it was more “let's play softball during gym class.”  But there was no one worse at sports than I–maybe because I refused to wear my glasses, which does create problems.  Always chosen last. And “PE” in those horrible horrible horrible snap up the front gymsuit things was, to use Hallie’s perfect word, torture.

I was a pretty good horseback rider, I have to say, back in the day. And I could actually ice skate pretty well, strangely. And I was in all the plays–that kind of team sport I could do.

LUCY BURDETTE: I regret that there weren’t sports for girls when I was growing up, but girls did dancing and cheerleading. Boys played the sports. In another world, our daughter Molly was a very talented athlete with a lot of options. She played soccer and lacrosse, and then lacrosse for UC Berkeley. Her kids are not as driven, which I think is a disappointment, or at least a puzzle. John and I had lots of fun watching Thea play soccer last time we visited. Her team won their first tournament, and as you can see in the photo, she was thrilled. 

DEBS: So cute! And that trophy is enormous!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I straddled the Title IX era - it was passed when I was in grade school, but the tiny and always underfunded rural school I went to after we came back from Germany couldn’t support many teams. There was field hockey for girls, which I played with zest, and I was in the ski club, which started a life-long passion for alpine skiing. I skated a LOT, both in Germany, and in upstate NY, and when Mom married Dad and we moved to the Finger Lakes, I got my boating and sailing licenses. I still sail whenever and wherever I can.

Other than that… not so much, and I’ve had to be grudgingly driven to exercise for my health. Ross loved riding (his parents were both professional equestrians) and racket sports. We used to joke we had to-the-manor born tastes in sports and a living-in-the-hovel income.

DEBS: I'll bet there are a lot of younger women who don't realize that girls weren't offered the opportunity to play sports. We take things for granted so quickly.

What about you, dear readers, guys and girls? Did you grow up playing sports? Was being part of team important?

Read This, Not That: Travel Edition by Lucy Burdette

LUCY BURDETTE: This is a Traveling with Books question. John and I are going on a big trip in March involving a very long plane flight, long layovers, etc. I used to travel with a stack of books because I absolutely have to have something to read while I’m on the road. Plus obviously, vacation offers more time to read, depending on the type of vacation you’ve chosen. (This vacation will involve a lot of trudging, so we’ll see how much reading gets done.)

In the past, if I was going somewhere for a week-ish, I would pack 6 to 8 books so I wouldn’t run out. John was always horrified at the extra weight. Then e-books became popular, we acquired a Kindle, and I was persuaded to leave the hardcopies behind. Imagine my horror and despair when the brand new Kindle malfunctioned early in the trip so a quarter of each screen was absolutely unreadable. Even though we were in Hungary, we managed to find one bookstore that carried some English language books, but nothing I was dying to read. So I borrowed books from the other travelers on the trip as they finished what they’d brought--dependent on their book choices and reading speed. It was a nightmare! 

Now I try to combine the techniques – pick out a couple of paperbacks that are thick and and not too serious and utterly appealing so as to distract from the worst aspects of traveling, and hope the Kindle app on my iPad continues to function as well.

Questions of the day: Can you recommend a paperback book or two that meet my travel criteria: thick and compelling? (The photo is of some of the books I own that could possibly make the travel team. Do any of those strike your fancy?) How do you handle traveling and reading?

Everything Old is New Again by Ang Pompano

 LUCY BURDETTE: today we welcome back good friend Ang Pompano, who has a re-release of an excellent book, and as always, some comments on changes in the world…

ANG POMPANO: Thanks so much for inviting me back, Lucy. I always enjoy visiting with my Jungle Red friends.

Some of you may know the Peter Allen song “Everything Old Is New Again.” It’s not a new idea, Jonathan Swift was saying the same thing centuries ago. But it’s been on my mind lately, especially when I think about education.

I taught for thirty-five years. That’s long enough to watch trends sweep in with the next great idea, disappear when another idea comes around, and then, inevitably, return. Early in my schooling, I remember my second-grade teacher teaching us phonics from a book she kept hidden in an open drawer, ready to slide shut if the principal walked in. Phonics was out; whole language was in.

Fast-forward to my own classroom years later, and we were proudly teaching cursive writing with impunity. I don’t even remember whether I was taught the Palmer Method or not, but I do remember loving the feel of the pen in my hand and the way ink flowed as letters connected with loops and swirls. There was something satisfying about it. And I saw that same pride on my students’ faces when their handwriting finally “clicked.”

Then, toward the end of my career, the powers that be decided cursive was no longer necessary. Keyboards would take its place. Once again, veteran teachers found themselves doing what my second-grade teacher had done years earlier, quietly teaching cursive while keeping one eye on the door.

And now? Everything old is new again. Some states have begun reinstating cursive instruction, recognizing that penmanship teaches more than how to write pretty letters. It builds fine motor skills, strengthens hand–eye coordination, reinforces spelling and reading, improves memory and focus, and encourages patience and persistence. Skills that matter well beyond the page.

Speaking of things coming around again, I’m happy to share that my book Diet of Death has been rereleased, ahead of its follow-up, Simmering Secrets, which will be out next year. Proof that even in mystery writing, everything old is new again. Readers, what do you think? Should penmanship be taught again?

Ang Pompano is a mystery author, editor, and unapologetic food enthusiast. He is the creator of the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency and the Reluctant Food Columnist series, where he blends twisty crime with sharp wit and a well-stocked pantry. His latest novel, Diet of Death, was released in January 2026. Ang is a co-founder of Crime Spell Books and co-editor of the Best New England Crime Stories anthology. He shares his twin passions for prose and provisions at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. He and his wife Annette, who is an artist, live in Connecticut with their two rescue dogs.

Gillian B as the winner of the ARC from Maddie Day/Edith Maxwell. Contact her at edith@edithmaxwell dot com!