“But anyhow, between shows, the lights would go down and you’d hear this man’s voice saying, ‘And now, the Alabama Theater is proud to present …’ he’d always say that, ‘proud to present’ Miss Essie Rue Limeway, performing on the mighty Wurlitzer. And from far away you’d hear this music … and then, all of a sudden, here would come this huge organ, rising up from the floor, and there would be Essie Rue, playing her theme song, ‘I’m in Love with the Man in the Moon.’ And all the spotlights would hit her and the sound of that organ would fill the theater and shake the rafters. Then she’d turn around and smile and never miss a note; and move into another song. Before you knew it, she’d be playing ‘Stars Fell on Alabama’ or ‘Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,’ And her tiny little feet would just fly over those pedals like butterflies! She wore ankle straps that she ordered especially from Loveman’s department store.
“You’d think she’d put weight on everywhere, but she never did, just her body.
“Everybody has their good points, and she knew hers and played them up. That’s why I hate to see you so down on yourself. I was telling Mrs. Otis the other day, I said, ‘Evelyn Couch has got the prettiest skin I ever saw,’ I said. ‘She looks like her mother has just kept her wrapped up in cotton all her life.’ ”
“Why, thank you, Mrs. Threadgoode.”
“Well, it’s true. You don’t have a wrinkle on you. I also told Mrs. Otis that I thought you ought to think about selling some of that Mary Kay cosmetics. With your skin and personality, why I bet you could get yourself a pink Cadillac in no time. My neighbor Mrs. Hartman has a niece who sells it and she made a bundle, and Mary Kay gave her a pink Cadillac as a bonus. And she’s not half as pretty as you are.”
Evelyn said, “Oh Mrs. Threadgoode, thank you for saying that, but I’m too old to start anything like that. They want young women.”
“Evelyn Couch, how can you say that, you are still a young woman. Forty-eight years old is just a baby! You’ve got half your life left to live yet! Mary Kay doesn’t care how old you are. She’s no spring chicken herself. Now, if it was me and I had that skin and was your age, I’d make a try at that Cadillac. Of course, I’d have to get me a driver’s license, but I’d try for it anyway.
“Just think, Evelyn, if you live to be as old as I am, you’ve got thirty-seven more years to go …”
Evelyn laughed. “What does it feel like to be eighty-six, Mrs. Threadgoode?”
“Well, I don’t feel any different. Like I say, it just creeps up on you. One day you’re young and the next day your bosoms and your chin drops and you’re wearing a rubber girdle. But you don’t know you’re old. Course, I can tell when I look in the mirror … sometimes it nearly scares me to death. My neck looks just like old crepe paper, and I’ve got so many wrinkles and there’s nothing you can do about it. Oh, I used to have something from Avon for wrinkles, but it didn’t last but about an hour and they all came back, so I finally stopped fooling with it. I don’t even put on a face anymore, just a little lotion and eyebrow pencil, so you can tell I’ve got eyebrows … they’re white now, honey … and I’m full of liver spots.” She looked at her hands. “You wonder where all those little fellows come from.” Then she laughed. “I’m even to old to make a good picture. Francis wanted to snap a picture of me and Mrs. Otis, but I hid my head. Said I might break the camera.”
Evelyn asked if she ever got lonesome out there.
“Well, yes, sometimes I do. Of course, all my people are gone … but once in a while, some of the ones from the church come to see me, but it’s just hello and goodbye. That’s just the way it is, hello and goodbye.
“Sometimes I look at my picture of Cleo and little Albert and wonder what they’re up to … and dream about the old days.”
She smiled at Evelyn. “That’s what I’m living on now, honey, dreams, dreams of what I used to do.”
NOVEMBER 18, 1940
Stump was in the back room shooting at cardboard blackbirds with a rubber-band gun and Ruth was correcting papers when Idgie came banging in the back door from the annual Dill Pickle Club fishing trip.
He ran and jumped up on her and nearly knocked her down.
Ruth was glad to see her because she always worried whenever Idgie went off for a week or more, especially when she knew she was down at the river with Eva Bates. Stump ran out to look on the back steps.
“Where’s the fish?”
“Well, Stump,” Idgie said, “the truth is, we caught a fish, it was so big we couldn’t get it out of the water. We took a picture of it, though, and the picture alone weighs twenty pounds …”
“Oh Aunt Idgie, you didn’t catch any fish!”
About that time, they heard, “Whooo-ooo, it’s me … me and Albert, come to visit …” and in came a tall, sweet-looking woman, with her hair twisted back in a knot, and a little retarded boy, about Stump’s age, coming to visit just like they had every day for the past ten years; and they were always glad to see her.
Idgie said, “Well hey there, gal, how you doing today?”
“Just fine,” she said, and sat down. “How are you girls doing?”
Ruth said, “Well, Ninny, we almost had some catfish for supper, but they must not have been biting.” She laughed. “We’re having photographs instead.”
Ninny was disappointed. “Oooh, Idgie, I wish you had brought me a good ol’ catfish tonight … I love a good catfish. What a shame, I can just taste him.”
“Ninny,” Idgie said, “catfish don’t bite in the dead of winter.”
“They don’t? Well, you’d think they would be just as hungry in the winter as they are in the summer, wouldn’t you?”
Ruth agreed. “That’s true, Idgie. Why don’t they bite this time of year?”
“Oh, it’s not that they’re not hungry, it has to do with the temperature of the worm. A catfish won’t eat a cold worm, no matter how hungry it gets.”
Ruth looked at Idgie and shook her head, always amazed at the tales she could come up with.
Ninny said, “Well, that makes sense. I hate my food to get cold, myself, and I guess even if you were to heat up the worms, they would be cold by the time they got to the bottom of the river, wouldn’t they? And speaking of cold, hasn’t it been a cold old winter? It’s as cold as blitzen out there.”
Albert was across the room playing with Stump and shooting at the cardboard blackbirds. While Ninny was having her coffee, she had a thought. “Stump, do you reckon you could come over to my house and shoot your gun at these old blackbirds that are sitting on my telephone wires? I don’t want you to hurt them, I just want you to scare them off … I think they’re up there listening to my telephone calls, through their feet.”
Ruth, who adored Ninny, said, “Oh Ninny, you don’t think that’s true, do you?”
“Well, honey, that’s what Cleo told me.”
NOVEMBER 19, 1940
Faith Act Used to Fleece Woman Out of $50 in Cash
Mrs. Sallie Jinx, of 68-C Howell Street, S.E., was the victim of flimflam, she reported to police yesterday. Mrs. Jinx said a woman, known to her as Sister Bell, came to her home and, through a faith act, pretended to tie $50 of her money in a napkin and put it in a trunk with instructions not to open the napkin until four hours later. When the napkin was opened, the money was gone, the victim stated.