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Suds #4
Wait For the Wagon
Kindhearted and loudmouthed Mrs. Feeley, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Miss Tinkham have only just set out on their long-awaited cross-country drive to the West Coast when the trouble begins. It’s bad enough that they wind up in a seedy, truck stop nightclub, but then it’s raided by the police! Thankfully, Chief Connolly can tell they’re decent folks and lets them off easy, but he needs a favor in return. He wants them to take a passenger on their trip; a dangerous passenger they’ll need to outwit before making it home.
Mary Lasswell is firing on all cylinders again in this madcap, slapstick, high-spirited adventure—the fourth to star Mrs. Feeley and friends.
Mary Lasswell is firing on all cylinders again in this madcap, slapstick, high-spirited adventure—the fourth to star Mrs. Feeley and friends.
- GenresFiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
10 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Mary Lasswell
24 books8 followersAmerican author of humorous novels about life in Southern California, Texas, Mexico, and Newark, New Jersey under the name Mary Lasswell. She was born in Scotland to American parents and grew up in Brownsville, Texas.
Her first book, Suds in Your Eye (1942), published by Houghton Mifflin, was described as "a crazy, funny story" about three impoverished but high-spirited and beer-loving elderly women. It was adapted into a Broadway Play by Jack Kirkland in 1944.
Laswell followed with five other books about the same three women, Mrs. Feeley, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Miss Tinkham, plus their handyman, only known as "Old-Timer". These included High Time (1944), One on the House (1949), Wait for the Wagon (1951), Tooner Schooner (1953), and Let's Go for Broke (1962), all with illustrations by famed New Yorker artist George Price. Their home base for most of the series was called "Noah's Ark", and was a junkyard in San Diego, but the third and fourth books were set during travels. These books consistently featured certain themes: the main characters faced financial disaster, were usually forced to take innovative measures to ensure a homeplace, rescued other people with problems, and acted as matchmakers.
Lasswell was also an editorial writer for the Houston Chronicle in the 1960's.
She was married to Dr. Dudley Winn Smith, a surgeon.
She died at the Solvang Lutheran Home in Solvang, California of Alzheimer's disease.
Her first book, Suds in Your Eye (1942), published by Houghton Mifflin, was described as "a crazy, funny story" about three impoverished but high-spirited and beer-loving elderly women. It was adapted into a Broadway Play by Jack Kirkland in 1944.
Laswell followed with five other books about the same three women, Mrs. Feeley, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Miss Tinkham, plus their handyman, only known as "Old-Timer". These included High Time (1944), One on the House (1949), Wait for the Wagon (1951), Tooner Schooner (1953), and Let's Go for Broke (1962), all with illustrations by famed New Yorker artist George Price. Their home base for most of the series was called "Noah's Ark", and was a junkyard in San Diego, but the third and fourth books were set during travels. These books consistently featured certain themes: the main characters faced financial disaster, were usually forced to take innovative measures to ensure a homeplace, rescued other people with problems, and acted as matchmakers.
Lasswell was also an editorial writer for the Houston Chronicle in the 1960's.
She was married to Dr. Dudley Winn Smith, a surgeon.
She died at the Solvang Lutheran Home in Solvang, California of Alzheimer's disease.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 10, 2020
2020 bk 344. My least favorite by just a smidgeon - I still love the characters and I love her settings, but the gang has taken care of the bar, sold it, been given, a blue 1926 cadillac and are set to drive from New Jersey back to San Diego when they stop at combination "Truck Stop, motel cabins, and nightclub" in Pennsylvania for the night. It is there that they get mixed up with a fake doctor who sells drugs, his sidekick, Dave the truck driver, and the local police. Released from being eye witnesses, they are encouraged to take the doctor and his sidekick across country until he can be caught with the goods and prosecuted in a state where he doesn't have a 'fix'. This is an excellent look at how travel was in the country, post WWII, and before the interstates had been completed.
Still a fun book.
Still a fun book.
April 10, 2021
As others have said, this story lacks the conviviality of the other books.
On the road with nothing to do but bicker and get side tracked into a story that's not much like the rest.
Not enough of Mrs. Rasmussen's good food, or even much fun.
A road trip with these ladies could have been a real hoot, and an interesting glimpse of pre-interstate American life. As it is, they're in a hurry, and all fairly grouchy.
To hear my father tell it, driving back then was slow and frustrating with frequent tire repairs. Roads were too small, traffic could be heavy, and keeping yourself fed and well rested along the way was something of a chore.
On the other hand, I do keep rereading it every few years.
These books are a quick read, tend to get through them in just a few days with a bit of reading time at night.
On the road with nothing to do but bicker and get side tracked into a story that's not much like the rest.
Not enough of Mrs. Rasmussen's good food, or even much fun.
A road trip with these ladies could have been a real hoot, and an interesting glimpse of pre-interstate American life. As it is, they're in a hurry, and all fairly grouchy.
To hear my father tell it, driving back then was slow and frustrating with frequent tire repairs. Roads were too small, traffic could be heavy, and keeping yourself fed and well rested along the way was something of a chore.
On the other hand, I do keep rereading it every few years.
These books are a quick read, tend to get through them in just a few days with a bit of reading time at night.
September 14, 2019
Definitely reminds me of people my parents met in the 1950's.
August 3, 2007
Probably the least successful of Lasswell's books featuring the middle-aged trio of Mrs. Feehly, Mrs. Rasmussen, and Mrs. Tinkham. This one's plot, involving the apprehension of a drug dealer, just didn't have the fizz of her other four "Suds" books. Still, it did have the virtue of completing my Mary Lasswell collection.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews