Monday - Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

My friend Linda, Ala Carte and I go out to lunch and then thrifting once in awhile- we also do book exchanges. AND she has single handedly replenished my dishes. One day - while sitting in the family room hubby and I heard a terrible sound from the kitchen - a crashing sound of broken dishes - my cabinet shelf just had given out and all my every day dishes fell and broke! Yep - I had a great excuse for paper plates, but old (just kidding) Linda wouldn't hear of it and started bringing me some sets of dishes and they are beautiful - just one problem - now I have to do dishes!

I get off track so easily, anyway she loaned me a book called 'Saving CeeCee Honeycutt', by Beth Hoffman.

I read it and it was pretty good. It's about a 12 year old girls plight. She had taken care of her mentally ill mother and finally ended up at her aunt's in Savannah. She basically loses one mother, but finds many others as she grows into a woman.

Okay - there was one page that stuck out at me. It wasn't about the plot of the book at all. It was something fun - uplifting - which I am all about.

So enjoy this with me and tell me what you think. Page 221- 222.

♥♥♥

"Miz Goodpepper leaned forward and looked deep into my eyes. 'My grandmother said,"Don't grow up too fast, darling. Age is inevitable, but if you nurture a childlike heart, you'll never ever grow old.'"

I hugged the book to my chest and whispered, "Thank you."

"Now, how about some refreshments?" she said, grabbing her zills off the floor and rising to her feet.

I took after her and followed her to the kitchen. After setting out a plate of ginger cookies, she poured me a glass of orange soda, then pulled a bottle of wine from the cupboard, removing the cork with a pop.

"My grandmother was so creative. I'll never forget the day she and I painted the top of her dining table white. We used plain old house paint and just slopped it all over the beautiful mahogany. When my grandfather saw what we'd done he pitched a fit. But Grandmother just laughed.

"Then, every time they entertained dinner guests, she'd place a pencil next to the silverware. Guests were asked to write something or sign their names on the tabletop. When it was full of all sorts of clever sayings and signatures, my grandmother varnished it."

I wasn't sure what to say. Though it sure sounded interesting, it also seemed a little crazy.

Miz Goodpepper poured wine into a goblet and took a drink, "But after a few years the pencil marks faded and the varnish cracked, so my grandfather had the table striped and and refinished."

"Too bad your grandmother didn't give those people Magic Markers instead of pencils."

"Well, had there been markers back in those days, that old table would be worth a fortune, Will Rogers signed the table, so did Ethel Merman. Oh, Cecelia, you would have loved my grandmother," Miz Good pepper said, dunking a cookie into her glass of wine. "She was so alive and full of original ideas, especially for the era. While other women were busy being proper, she was busy cultivating her spirit."

Miz Good pepper bit into the wine-soaked cookie and let out a small groan of pleasure. "I can't tell you how many times my grandmother and I danced barefoot in the rain. She was so much fun."

I smiled up at Miz Goodpepper. "Are you a lot like her?"

"I hope so," she said, slipping g her fingers through loops on her zills and admiring them. "Grandmother would have adored these."

While I finished the last of my cookies, I thought about Momma, how she twirled through the house in her red shoes, singing at the top of her lungs, and how delighted she was to wave and blow kisses to her imaginary admirers. And I thought about Eugene Field's doll collection, and how Miz Goodpepper's grandmother had danced in the rain,

I licked crumbs from my fingers and looked at Miz Goodpepper thoughtfully. "What's the difference between eccentric and crazy?"

She lifted her hands above her head, tapped her zills together and danced out the door. From over her should she laughed and called out, "Nobody knows!"

♥♥♥

I thought that was so much fun - to imagine - for someone to do that way back when.

Have you ever had a moment like that? When your spirit took over your good sense?

Like Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes - The Towanda moment?

I did a few years back. I went to Alaska without my family. It was something I thought I'd never do - but I did. One of the best times in my life. Not because my family didn't go, but because I went and followed a dream. While it can't be repeated, I will always have the memories.

Love,
Chatty