Bianca June is the daughter of my Dresden's oldest brother. She is a junior at d'Oasis High School and is currently preparing for the Miss d'Oasis Pageant. She's a smart little thing and just as cute as can be. Bianca June is president of her class and lead all her classmates in scoring on the PSAT exam. We have big plans for her and I've already sent some messages to my collegiate alma mater about her. Hopefully, she'll follow in the footsteps of her Aunt Peggy. I might even allow her to pledge Ginny Sarah Beth Pickles' sorority, the Tri O's. Bianca June is a very outgoing and social butterfly. I can just hear her voice now chanting, "Oh Oh Oh ... you know you wanna Tri - O!"
Junebug is the daughter of my Dresden's younger brother. She is a freshman at d'Oasis High and is the lead baton twirler in the marching band. As a special addition to her baton twirling skills, the marching band added a feature for her in their salute to musicals field show. A large piece of plywood was placed smack dab in the middle of the field at half time and little Junebug presented a tap dance - all the while twirling a fire baton. I have to say you've probably never seen anything like it. At every home game, the stands would remain full at half time to watch little Junebug go. Eventually, the concession stand had to start sending students up into the stands with trays of drinks and goodies to sell.
Now, onto some exciting happenings from the weekend. It seems that Effie's new hairdo may have brought her a little luck. On Sunday, she made her yearly trek to New Topia for their New Topia Western Showcase and Rodeo. Effie does love her rodeos. She'd once told us that she had always dreamt of becoming a barrel racer. The only thing that held her back was the economic status of the Dixon clan. I'm not saying they're poor. They always seem to have enough to fulfill the basic requirements of life, but not much more beyond that.
Effie usually returned from the Western Showcase and Rodeo with some trinket that honored her escapade - usually a belt buckle or miniature riding crop. This year was something different. Effie had been so excited about this rodeo and was truly beyond herself after we encouraged her to disengage that bleach blonde fall atop her beautiful red hair. She always caught a ride to the rodeo with Connie Sue Ramirez. Connie Sue also attends the Western Showcase and Rodeo every year as she sets up a booth in the Showcase to sell her homemade dream catchers.
You may've guessed that Connie Sue and Hoke "Jon-Jon" Ramirez might be related. They are, in fact, cousins. Connie Sue's real name is Consuela, but when she came to d'Oasis she wanted to be as American as she could and insisted on everyone calling her Connie Sue. Her spirit, now, fits her name more so than Consuela, if ya ask me.
Meemaw and I had been standing outside the Eat It, Too, on Sunday, as Connie Sue and Effie passed by on their way to New Topia. Well, we heard them coming down the road, first. Connie Sue has a tricky muffler on her car. If she hits a bump at just the right angle, the back of the muffler dives toward the ground and makes this hideous noise as it drags along the street. I believe she has gotten used to the noise, so will drive for miles and miles before stopping to fix the thing. Meemaw has asked Lou Coalhouse Dixon several times if there is a way to weld it put. Lou has offered to fix it for Connie Sue for discounted price - probably to save the ears of all d'Oasians - but Connie Sue seems to have found a contentment with the quirkiness of her vehicle.
At 8:00 pm that evening, Meemaw rung me up at home to tell me she'd seen Connie Sue pass by her house and Effie was nowhere to be seen - in Connie Sue's vehicle. She'd given Connie Sue the 7 more minutes of drive to her house before Meemaw called the Ramirez residence to inquire. Connie Sue had delivered a cryptic message to Meemaw that Effie was just fine and would be calling all of us soon so Meemaw should probably hang up.
"And so you called me," I asked - exasperated. "She's probably trying to call one of us this very..." and my phone beeped. I always forget about that call waiting thing. "Hold on Meemaw. My other line is beeping." I clicked over to Effie's excited voice.
"Heyyyyy Peggy!! It's Effie!! Could you be standing on your front porch in about ten minutes?"
"Well, I suppose I could, Effie but why," I asked.
"All will be revealed," she said and hung up.
I clicked back over to Meemaw. "I'm going to hang up because I'm pretty sure Effie is about to call you. Bye, Meems."
In exactly ten minutes, I was standing on my front porch - in the glow of the porch light - when this car I had never seen in town pulled up to my driveway. I guess I could describe it as a refurbished mid-1980's Nova. I strained to see who was inside and Teensy stuck her head out the passenger window with a big smile. "Heyyyy Peggy!"
"Teensy, what're you doing in that car and to whom does it belong?"
"We'll pull up and the owner will present herself," Teensy said, with a giggle.
The car pulled into my driveway. Teensy quickly disembarked and ran around to the driver side. With a flourish of arms, she shouted, "Ta dahhhhh!!"
The driver side door opened and out stepped Effie. She was just glowing she smiled so much. I clapped my hands to my face. "Effie Dixon!! You got a car?!!"
"You could say that, Peggy! But I want to tell all y'all the story. Climb on in and let's go over to Meemaw's. She's waiting."
I ran in and slid my easy-wearin' shoes on, grabbed my purse, locked the front door and ran down to jump into the car. I was amazed when I took my place in the back seat. It appeared that the seats had even been redone and were also leather. Effie sang to the top of her lungs with the radio all the way to Meemaw's house. Teensy and I just giggled away and took stock of the inside of Effie's new car.
We pulled into Meemaw's driveway and she stood at the top of her stairs with a look of unease. Like me, she couldn't see who was in the strange vehicle that pulled in to pay a visit. Teensy and I both hopped out of the car and ran to the driver side door. We reprised the "Ta dahhh" that Teensy had shouted at my house. With an ever-growing smile, Effie stepped out of her car and then posed by it like one of those car show models. Teensy and I giggled even more and applauded Effie's poses.
"Who belongs to that car, Effie Dixon?!!" shouted Meemaw, down the stairs.
Effie's eyes flickered up to the porch as we approached Meemaw's house, "This lovely Nova belongs to me, Meemaw!"
"Isn't it amazing," asked Teensy, breathily.
"Well get on in this house and tell us all how you came to obtain this vehicle," posed Meemaw. "I've got some Rice Krispies Treats in the oven and some hot tea and brandy."
In a flash, we prepared our snacks and hot toddies and settled in Meemaw's living room to hear Effie's tale. Effie reminded us that she'd gone up to New Topia that day for the annual Western Showcase and Rodeo. She also said that she'd gained some new confidence with the success of the trim and set Tania Dean gave her last Friday. Effie had never revealed to us that the rodeo in New Topia always had an amateur portion to the event. Effie always wanted to participate but was too scared. She knew it was fate when she arrived at the rodeo and learned this year's amateur contest would be barrel racing. It had been at least twelve years since they'd done barrel racing. Effie decided to take her chance.
Though Effie had only ridden a horse four or five times in her life, she knew that today would be her day. She signed her name up, proudly, wiggled in her seat in the stands until the amateur contest and ran to get in line when the event was announced. As the organizers numbered the riders by age, Effie would be the final rider of the event. There were a lot of young ones there. Effie watched as rider after rider had the time of their lives.
Finally, Effie stepped up to mount her horse. Before taking her mount, Effie looked into the eyes of her horse - named Shazam - and gave the horse a little wink. When she was atop Shazam, she felt the horse release a deep breath. This was the most comfortable place Effie had ever been. She barely heard the buzzer go off to begin her ride. The entire back and forth of the ride was a blur to Effie. The only thing she remembers is that what she was feeling must have been a lot like heaven. When Effie and Shazam crossed the finish line there was just the slightest pause from the arena. Then, the time was posted and every person in the arena was on his or her feet.
Effie's time in the barrel race had shattered the record for the New Topia Western Showcase and Rodeo. Effie was very excited to have won and flattered by the audiences reaction. She knew that she was happy to have finally gotten to fulfill a dream - even if it was in a little way. As she dismounted from Shazam - giving the sweet horse a loving pat - the director of the rodeo walked up and held some keys out to Effie. Effie gave the man a strange look and his smile grew into laughter as he explained to her that there was a prize for any record broken at the rodeo in the New Topia Arena. Effie almost fainted when he told her the keys were to a refurbished Nova parked in a place of honor just outside the entrance to the Arena. Connie Sue, who had been standing with Effie, clapped her hands and gave Effie the tightest hug any soul had ever given.
Effie could not believe her luck. She'd driven exactly the speed limit all the way home to make sure some negative occurrence wouldn't spoil the day. That's why Connie Sue had beaten Effie back to d'Oasis. Effie told all us girls that she wanted to drive us wherever we needed to go for the next week. She was so excited to finally have a car, she wanted to share this moment with all her best friends.
"Well, you can certainly drive Meemaw and Peggy to the d'OPT, tomorrow night, Effie," proclaimed Teensy. Our three faces turned to Teensy. The child barely spoke above a whisper most of the time and for her to get excited about the d'Oasis Public Theatre wasn't the norm. They have definitely presented a few amazing productions. But they usually do shows to specifically highlight the talents of Miss Jubilee Saskatoon. Jubilee is the Artistic Director of the d'Oasis Public Theatre. We all call it d'OPT for short.
"What's going on at d'OPT, Teensy?" asked Meemaw.
Teensy squirmed a little bit in her seat. "Well, they're presenting a reading of "The Glass Menagerie" and I have a part in it." The slightest smile graced Teensy's face.
I looked at Meemaw as if to prod her onto further investigation. "Well, Teensy, that is just great," said Meemaw. "What part are you playing and how long have y'all been practicing?"
"I'm playing Laura Wingfield and we've been practicing for about a week. It's just a reading of the play - part of the d'OPT Reading Series. It's a lovely play and I love the character of Laura so much."
"Well we will all definitely be going to your reading, Teensy," I said. Teensy's eyes lit up. Teensy wasn't one to get overly excited about something and to see this change in her put a little spark in all of us.
We went outside to have another look at Effie's car and she took us all for a ride through downtown. We had the windows all the way down, waving our arms at anyone we passed and singing old school songs. Effie then dropped each of us at our homes and agreed to pick us up at 5:00 pm the next day for some dinner before the show, at The Eatin' Hall Diner. Teensy said she would be too nervous to eat but she would see us after the reading.
The workday, on Monday, couldn't have gone any slower. I was too excited about seeing Teensy in the play. Meemaw called me every other hour to say she couldn't even get any gardening done because she was just a jittery mess - in a good way. Finally, five o'clock arrived. At 5:12, Effie and Meemaw rode up in Effie's Nova and parked in front of Eaton Hall - the city hall. We walked over to the Eatin' Hall Diner for some steak and veggies. We could hardly eat what was in front of us and we talked about how excited we were to see Teensy on the stage. I know we all hoped we'd be able to hear Teensy in the audience, but none of us voiced that concern.
At 6:45, we all walked down to d'OPT where there was already a line of d'Oasians waiting to get in. I wondered how I'd missed any news about the d'OPT Reading Series, but let it go because here I was. Meemaw, Effie and I found our seats in the theatre and started to peruse our playbills. In the list of players, Teensy Wiggins as Laura Wingfield, Jubilee Saskatoon as Amanda Wingfield, Chester Hottenton as Tom Wingfield and Hoke "Jon-Jon' Ramirez as Tom O'Connor.
None of us was surprised to see Miss Saskatoon's name in the program. I'd think Jubilee would've wanted to play Laura. She's a little young to be playing the mother. But I guess you can overlook age when doing a reading series. I hoped I would understand all the lines from Jon-Jon, as Tom O'Connor the gentleman caller. Is that bad to admit?
Well, the lights finally went down. The curtain opened to reveal the actors sitting in chairs which surrounded a side table covered with little figurines. The reading began and we were mesmerized from line one. The audience immediately learns of the frailties of Laura and I understood, immediately why Jubilee had asked Teensy to read that role. Teensy's reading was brilliant and we heard every word that came out of her mouth. It's amazing what being on the stage can do for a person. I was kind of correct in my concerns about Jon-Jon's reading the gentleman caller role but he was very charming.
I had to hold my breath when they got to the scene where the unicorn figurine is knocked over:
Jim: Is eet broken?
Laura: Now it's just like all the other horses.
Jim: Eets lost eets...
Laura: Horn! It doesn't matter...(smiling) I'll just imagine he had an operation. The horn was removed to make him feel less - freakish.
I could feel the tears welling up in my ears. I immediately had flashbacks to high school and Teensy's transformation from Freshman to Senior year. Teensy lost her own horn in those days and became the wonderful Teensy we know, today.
You can be assured that there was a long, standing ovation at the end of the reading - particularly for Teensy's reading. It was Jubilee's most brilliant casting since Lou Coalhouse Dixon performed the lead in "Jacques Brel..." We gals went over to the Dizzy Bubbles for celebratory drinks and fawned over our Teensy into the wee hours. Every d'Oasian who'd been at the performance came by to give Teensy congratulations. Jubilee sat with us, too, into the wee hours with a joyful expression.
Until tomorrow...don't be tacky...Peggy!
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