Oh, where is my boy tonight?
OCTOBER 22, 1929
Meteorite to Be on Display at Cafe
Mrs. Biddie Louise Otis announced today that she was going to take the meteorite that came through her roof last week down to the cafe so people would stop calling her up about it, because she is busy moving. She said that it is nothing but a big gray rock, but if anyone wants to look at it they can.
Idgie says to come on in the cafe whenever you want to and she will have it on the counter.
Sorry I don't have more news this week, but my other half, Wilbur, has the flu and I've had to wait on him hand and foot all week.
Is there anything worse than a man that's sick?
We are sorry to report that our beloved 98-year-old Bessie Vick, Bertha's mother-in-law, died yesterday, of what was thought to be old age.
. . . Dot Weems . . .
DECEMBER 22, 1985
The next Sunday, when Evelyn came to the visitors' lounge, Mrs. Threadgoode was sitting in the same chair, wearing the same dress, waiting for her.
Happy as a lark, she continued the conversation about the Threadgoode house as if they had never been apart, and there was nothing Evelyn could do about it but unwrap her Almond Joy candy bar and sit there for the duration.
"The front yard had a great big old chinaberry tree. I remember, we'd pick those little chinaberries all year long, and at Christmas, we'd string them and wrap them all around the tree from
top to bottom. Momma was always warning us not to put chinaberries up our nose, and of course the first thing Idgie did, as soon as she learned to walk, was to go out in the yard and put chinaberries up her nose and in her ears as well. To the point that Dr. Hadley had to be called! He told Momma, 'Mrs. Threadgoode, it looks like you've got yourself a little scalawag on your hands.'
"Well, of course Buddy just loved to hear that. He encouraged her every step of the way. But that's how it is in big families. Everybody has their favorite. Her real name was Imogene, but Buddy started calling her Idgie. Buddy was eight when she was born, and he used to carry her all over town, just like she was a doll. When she got old enough to walk, she'd paddle around after him like a little duck, dragging that little wooden rooster behind her.
"That Buddy had a million-dollar personality, with those dark eyes and those white teeth . . . he could charm you within an inch of your life. I don't know of a girl in Whistle Stop that wasn't in love with him at some time or another.
"They say you never forget your sweet sixteen party, and that's true. I still can remember that pink-and-white cake with the carousel on top, and that pale lime-green punch Momma had in her crystal punch bowl. And those paper lanterns hanging all around the yard. But what stands out the most in my mind was Buddy Threadgoode stealin' a kiss from me, over behind the grape arbor. Oh, he did! But I was just one of the many . . .
"Idgie was kept busy delivering love notes to and from Buddy, night and day. We even started calling her Cupid. Idgie was a towhead; had short, curly blond hair, blue eyes, and freckles. She took after Momma's side of the family. Momma's maiden name had been Alice Lee Cloud. She'd always say, 'I was a Cloud before I married.' She was the sweetest thing. Almost everybody in the family had blue eyes, except Buddy and poor Essie Rue, who had one brown eye and one blue one. Momma told her that was the reason she had so much musical talent. She saw the good in everything. One time, when Idgie and Buddy stole four big watermelons from old man Sockwell, they hid them in her blackberry patch. And, honey, the next morning, before they could get out there and get them, Momma found them and was convinced they had grown overnight. Cleo said there wasn't a year that went by she wasn't disappointed they didn't grow back. Nobody had the heart to tell her those melons had been stolen goods.
"Momma was Baptist and Poppa was a Methodist. He said he had an aversion to being dipped underwater. So every Sunday, Poppa would go off to the left to the First Methodist church and the rest of us would go off to the right to the Baptist church. Every once in a while Buddy would go with Poppa, but I he stopped after a while. Said Baptist girls were prettier.
"Everybody was always staying at the Threadgoode house. One summer, Momma had this big fat Baptist preacher, who was in town for a camp meeting, staying with us, and when he was out somewhere, the twins went into his room and got to playing in a pair of his trousers. Patsy Ruth got in one leg and Mildred got in the other. They were having a fine time, until they heard him comin up the stairs . . . They got so scared that Mildred took off in one direction and Patsy Ruth took off in the other. Split those pants right in two. Momma said the only I reason Poppa didn't give them a spanking is because that preacher was a Baptist. But it never caused a serious rift, because after church we'd all meet back home for our Sunday dinner.