The first time I saw Josh Lucas in Sweet Home Alabama, I was propelled back in time…as swiftly and surely as any time machine could have managed. It was June 1963 all over again and a Saturday night in Memphis. Two sisters and friends from church, Diane and Yvonne, and I had just arrived a little late to the Saturday…
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Forty-six years ago we were standing there smiling…the shutter was pressed…and a moment in time was captured forever. It seems to me I can remember that day. I’m not positively sure where the three of us (L-R: Nancee, Dianne and Kathy) were going, but I believe it was the Cotton Carnival. It would have been May or June 1962 and…
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Just as music can take us back to another time, so can the memory of certain foods…the sweet aromas coming from the kitchen of our childhood… Mama’s kitchen was painted a robin’s egg blue with crisp white trim and white curtains. The cabinets, stove, refrigerator and clothes washer were white. There was no dishwasher – that would have been Sharon…
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After the harvest was over and the canning was done, winter signaled the time for Mama to begin quilting again. I remember her piecing together some of the most intricate designs. An artist with a needle and thread, she made some of the most beautiful quilts. Once Mama had pieced together the quilt top, Daddy would set up the wooden…
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I can’t remember when Larry and his family first moved in across the street…Larry, his older brother, two younger brothers and his parents. Not long after they moved there, his Dad died suddenly. I don’t remember if his Mom went to work after that, but I’m assuming that she did. I do remember seeing Larry and his older brother frying…
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I spent the summer of 1962 working as a volunteer “Candy Striper” at what was then John Gaston Hospital, now known as the Regional Medical Center of Memphis. I was sixteen years old and had just completed my junior year in high school. There were only two choices for traveling to the hospital each morning. I could take the city…
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It was February 25, 1961 – a bitter cold Saturday in Memphis – and one I’ll never forget. It was the day of the “Special Matinee Memphis Charity Show, starring Elvis Presley”! I had just turned 15 in December and, like every other teenage girl in America, I loved Elvis and his music! My 15 year old best friend Kathy,…
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When I was born, my three sisters were 18, 15 and 11 years old. My parents were forty-one at the time. No doubt, I was their last hope for a son, but it was not to be. There would always be the four sisters. Even with the age difference, we have always been close. My sister Gerry (above) married at…
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When I was about ten years old, my parents purchased a larger house about two miles away on Victor Drive. It wasn’t a large house by any stretch of the imagination, maybe twelve hundred square feet at the most. In my memory, it was a white cottage with green shutters. In addition to an extra bedroom, the house had a…
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The seasons came and went on Mamie Road…and the years with them. My Dad had a good job at a manufacturing plant; but like everyone else in the fifties, there wasn’t a great deal of money. My mother was a wonderful cook and there was always plenty of good food on the table. She had a big vegetable garden in…
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If I could turn the clock back here, it would be Summertime in Memphis, 1950. We were living on Mamie Road…then a tree-lined road on the outskirts of Memphis with small homes, large yards with beautiful flowers and vegetable gardens, friendly neighbors and a haven of safety for small children who loved to play outdoors. If you’ve seen the Disney…
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Perhaps it’s significant that I was born in the Delta of Mississippi, where the blues can be heard from the cotton fields to the Mississippi River. Music has always been such a part of my heart and soul. Granted, I’m thoughtful enough not to sing within anyone’s earshot, but when I’m alone, I can belt out a tune with the…
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