Sailors Trousers

Looking for a book or a story? Post details here and hopefully someone will be able to help.
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hele
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Sailors Trousers

Post by hele »

Help, My Mum has all my life searched for a book that she can remember her Granny reading to her whreen she was a little girl. The book contained the line " there is enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers". Despite me growing up an avid Enid Blyton fan and having many books, and my Mum searching car boot sales for books we didn't have Mum has never been able to find this story again.
I would so love to find it and get her a copy as a present, can you imagine how pleased she would be.
Can any one help??????????? :D
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Almas
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Almas »

Welcome to the forums, Hele. I wish I could help you with this - but I'm not an expert and furthermore I haven't read many Blytons. There are however many knowledgeable members in the forums who will be able to help you.

In the mean time, click in here: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/auth ... rch=sailor


I hope it helps!
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.

When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen.
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Kate Mary
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Kate Mary »

Hi Hele, Welcome to the forums. The story you are are looking for is in "Enid Blyton's Book of the Year". Check out the book listings for a picture of the cover and a list of the contents.

Kate.
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Kate Mary
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Kate Mary »

Addendum to my previous post. Before you start scouring ebay and Abebooks for a copy, I should perhaps add that "Enid Blyton's Book of the Year" is an anthology of stories, poems, plays, songs and nature notes intended for use in schools.

Enid wrote thousands of short stories and the phrase 'enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers' might have appeared in other stories. Forum members are a knowledgeable bunch and somebody might come up with another answer, if not I know a man who will! If Tony is not too busy cataloging Sunny Stories, I sure he has the definitive answer.

Kate.
tix
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by tix »

This is another example of Enid Blyton using the same idea in a couple of her stories. As mentioned - “Book of the Year” has the phrase “… enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of trousers” and is about a sailor, a snappy dog, a weather-clerk and a wise woman (A pair of blue trousers).

The other story, with a slightly different slant, has the same phrase and is called “A bit of blue sky” (Happy Story Book) and it should be easier to get hold of. It’s about Nannie Wimple cutting a piece of blue out of the sky to see if the weather was going to be fine so that Harry and Joan could play Red-Indians in the garden after dinner.
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Daisy
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Daisy »

I think the phrase about blue trousers was in common usage during the time Enid wrote. I know it was quoted by my ever optimistic mother when we woke to rainy days when on holiday! -this would be in the late '40s and early '50s. We 3 sisters would have earnest discussions as to whether the small patch of blue was in fact big enough to make trousers from! I feel I've known the phrase all my life and when reading it in Book of the Year thought "Oh, Enid Blyton knows my mother's saying too"!
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hele
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by hele »

Thankyou all so much for your help. I shall now search ofr the two books mentioned. I am so excited at the thought of presenting this to my Mum.
It wil be an appropriate thankyou to her for introducing me to Enid Blyton when I was a tiny girl!
Hele :D
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Almas
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Almas »

I hope your mother enjoys the book, Hele. :D
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.

When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen.
hele
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Joined: 12 Aug 2007, 19:26

Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by hele »

Hello again,
I just thought i would update you on this subject. I wasn''t with my Mum on christmas day this year. She knew I was pretty excited about her pressie, and after ringing and nagging her christmas morning to hurry up and open her pressies ( my 8 year old had his long open!!). She rang me mid morning in floods of tears, she was so happy to open the books, I had made 2 felt bookmarks and placed them in the books at the appropriate pages. Mum just couldn't believe i had found the story after all these years, she had even been looking at a car boot sale the sunday before christmas.
It was the story in the Happy Story book that Mum remembered but she loved the book of the year as it is such a special book, then rang me during the week very excited because upon reading the book of the year she discovered the play she had acted in when a small girl at school.
So once again thankyou for your help, you helped to make my Mums christmas .
Helen
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Ming »

Glad to know that Helen, thanks for telling us. :D
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

That's wonderful, Helen. It's great to know that your mum was so thrilled with the books. The very first story in Enid Blyton's Book of the Year, "New Year's Party," is a lovely story to read on New Year's Eve. So is "Father Time and His Pattern Book" from Sunshine Book - one of my all-time favourite Enid Blyton stories.

Anita
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Petermax
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Re: Sailors Trousers

Post by Petermax »

Father Time and His Pattern Book? I had no idea that this was an Enid Blyton story. Once again, thanks to this forum another long dormant memory has been awakened. I must have last read this well over thirty years ago.
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