Patty Vermeer

Memorable Character

PATTY VERMEER - AKA PRISCILLA NUTSHELL

It’s been nearly 75 years since I was in the second grade at Redwood School in Castro Valley and my memories of that class are primarily what I can recall from looking at the class photo that my mom had saved. I can only recall the names of a handful of my classmates including 8 year old blond ponytailed Patty Vermeer. It wasn’t until decades later that I learned that that Al Vermeer, a highly regarded and successful cartoonist lived in Castro Valley and penned Priscilla’s Pop, a “gag a day” comic strip and color Sunday feature. Priscilla’s Pop was syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and appeared in 400 newspapers across the county for nearly 30 years beginning in 1946. Vermeer’s strip featured the Nutshell family including Priscilla, a blond, pony tailed elementary school aged girl with parents Hazel and Waldo Nutshell trying to make ends meet in a community that was much like Castro Valley. Also appearing in the daily comic strip were her older brother Carlyle, friends Hollyhock and Stuart and her prized dog Oliver. Ongoing story lines included Priscilla’s obsession of wanting to have her own horse, and Waldo’s thrifty daily lunch of mashed potato sandwiches in order to make mortgage payments. I had no idea at the time that my second grade classmate Paddy Vermeer was Priscilla Nutshell!

I’ll never know if Priscilla finally got her horse (There were lot’s of horses in Castro Valley in those days), If Waldo payed off his mortgage and got tired of mashed potato sandwiches, or the life journeys of Patty Vermeer and the other second graders in that fading class photo.

    -Bill  6/23