Suds in Your Eye
Suds tells the story of three older women (and an older man referred to only as “the Old Timer”) who come together to scrape through some lean times during the Second World War. Mrs. Feely lives in a rickety old house known as “Noah’s Ark,” which sits in the middle of the junk yard left her by her husband. Her primary contribution since his passing has been to erect a fence of concrete and old beer cans, and she spends most of her days emptying more of the latter.
She soon invites Miss Tinkham, a piano teacher too poor to keep up with the inflationary rents of wartime San Diego, and Mrs. Rasmussen, another widow, who’s been reduced to squatting in her daughter’s apartment, to join her, and the rest of the book is about how the three pull together and overcome a series of hardships.
Mrs. Feely finds out that her lawyer has been pocketing her property tax payments for years and her house is about to be auctioned off by the county. After a fretful night, they spring into action. Mrs. Feely begins selling her junk to builders slapping together new housing; Miss Tinkham creates leis from the flowers around the house and sells them to sailors on liberty; Mrs. Rasmussen finds out where to get meat scraps and day-old bread and vegetables, out of which she fixes delicious-sounding meals. The three of them get jobs in a tuna-canning plant. And in between, they sing songs, make wisecracks, and drink beer.
Beer plays a prominent role in this book, which is one of its more refreshing aspects. Lasswell definitely believed that life took on a softer, gentler glow after a cold one or two. Every few pages one or other of the characters is walking into the house with a fresh case. The book is also sprinkled with illustrations by the wonderful George Price, who was a master at sketching slightly off-balance characters like the three old ladies in Suds.
Mary Lasswell was a Scots-Texan who started writing while waiting ashore for her first husband, an ensign in the U. S. Navy. The success of Suds led to a whole series about the travels and adventures of Mrs. Feely, Miss Tinkham, and Mrs. Rasmussen: High Time
Suds is a goofy but warm-hearted comedy of the sort that was very popular in the 1940s. Like Leo Rosten’s The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N
I first read Suds in Your Eye in 1947. It was sitting on a table next to the sofa in Mrs. Grant’s living room. We were living in San Diego, I was eight years old and it was 8:30, just past dusk on a summer evening. She was an elderly widow living alone across the street from us and I had been assigned to spend the night as a safety measure for she had just been returned from the hospital with a recently set broken right arm and was bed-ridden.
I sat on the sofa on alert with folded hands beginning to feel uneasy as the early evening shadows filled the room. Every now and then, I would cautiously stand and creep through the silent living room, the dark main hall and up to her open bedroom door to check on her, then creep back to the sofa.
Upon my second or third return to the sofa, I discovered the book on the side table and started reading. I was currently in the process of building a flower garden in my own backyard featuring circular beds bordered by large rocks I collected from the back alley and was charmed by the possibility of building a garden wall with beer cans. The book got me through the night with a chuckle or two and I was hooked for good.
Through the years, I have gathered all of the series and every few years will pick one up and escape from what ever tragedy or frustration with which I was currently dealing. I missed a great opportunity when I failed to attend any of the Coronado Play House’s productions of Suds in Your Eye which were presented each summer for a number of years during which I lived in San Diego. I comfort myself with the thought that perhaps seeing the characters portrayed on stage may have destroyed my own imagination-inspired mental pictures of the ladies and their various abodes.
Just this evening, I finished reading Let’s Go For Broke for the first time. Yes, I have owned the book for years but have been saving it for the delicious experience of reading it for the first time.
As I am now 83 and pandemic stressed, I figured it was “high time” that I reread the entire series topping it off with my first reading of Let’s Go For Broke. What a joy! I only regret that I never thanked the brilliant author.
Joanne L. Nivison
Thanks for sharing this. My mother read them for the *first* time at 83 and loved them, too. It’s timeless, classic American humor–not crass or crude but also also not insipid. Which is harder to do well than people think.
Read the first Mary Lasswell book, Suds In Your Eye, when I was a kid (reading WAY above my age) during WWII and have loved them. Had to search high and low to find the others. Can, at 83, still re-read them endlessly. Often use Mrs. Rassmussen’s cooking ideas for great results. I’ll raise a glass any time to The Three Graces.
I was going through my books ,trying to take out the ones that could be sold, when I came across Suds in Your Eyes. I put a memo on it to sell it and realized I had not read it . So I sat down and read it and I’m so glad I did. This one is a keeper and now I have to order all the others in the series. These are as good as the Don Camillo series. I have all of them too.
Thanks for your comments. I can only hope that some smart publisher’s agent recognizes what a treasure you have and LEAPS to get a look at it!
I grew up watching my mother read and laugh with all of Mary Lasswell’s books in the series of the wonderful little old ladies. Later, I read them and enjoyed them. My mother was a big fan of Mary Lasswell, and through the years they became great friends, corresponding for many years. On my mother’s 80th birthday, Mary was invited to her birthday party. Unable to attend, Mary sent my mother her last unpublished novel, which she cherished. My mother has since also died. I still have this manuscript, signed and dedicated to my mother. I wish I had a better place for it than sitting on my bookshelf.
That is ” Here’s to all ” (above) I also liked “Here’s to the Japanese Navy. Bottoms Up”
Yeup ! My mother loaned me Suds back in 1961 and since then I have read them all several times.
Every few years I go back and visit my old friends at the Ark and their later abodes. ” Her’s to all that wish us well and those who don’t can go to ****.”
That’s nice to hear. I sent a copy to my mom last year and it soon was making the rounds throughout her retirement home. I’ve since bought the rest of the series and she’s now got a mini-lending library service going. It’s definitely in the spirit of their generation.
Out of ashes come beauty. Dad, a WWII vet was pleasantly surprised to see me reading them when I was about 12. He started reading her stuff when stationed in the Marianna Islands. It was a shock when the local libraries sold off the copies but couldn’t get new ones. I long wondered why, but saw too many dependent on government and not self-reliant. Ms Lasswell was a mentor, be she blessed, though I’m not much of a drinker :)
I discovered Mary Lasswell’s books in the 70’s at our local library when I was a teenager. I love those old ladies and their friends. I now own all of Mary Lasswell’s books and am currently rereading them in order. I do this about every three years and am still not tired of the stories. I only wish she would have written more!
I love Mary Lasswell’s books. I have read Suds In Your Eye and am currently reading One On The House. I hope to find more of her books soon at library sales, yard sales, etc.
Mary Lasswell is one of my favorite authors. Her eccentric older ladies are great fun. I have been reading and rereading her books since the 1970’s when I first found them. I even own her cookbook from 1946, Mrs. Rasmussen’s Book of One Armed Cookery. I have only talked to one other person who knew about her.
I was standing in front of the meat counter at my local store and there was a great sale on Spare Ribs. I said, out loud, “I wonder what Mrs. Rasmussen would do with these?” The slightly older lady next to me turned and said “Do you know about Mrs. Rasmussen?” That started a friendship of over 20 years.
If you ever find one of her books I highly recommend them. My favorites are the first four. Suds in your Eye, High Time, One on the House and Wait for the Wagon. Her cookbook is great too.
Thanks for reviewing this book. I hope to find it.