Journal of a Living Lady #122

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

        I enjoy reading what other people write and writing what other people read. It occurred to me recently that many of my favorite authors have gone ahead of me. Three of them were were Lewis Grizzard, Erma Bombeck, and Celestine Sibley. If you never read those witty, down-home columnists, you missed some of life’s little joys.  As a reader and writer, I admire how these  unique people expressed their thoughts.

Take Lewis Grizzard, for example. If you haven’t heard of him, you aren’t from the South. He hailed from the little town of Moreland, Georgia, and was a University of Georgia alumnus. One of Grizzard’s first books was “Lewis Grizzard’s Advice to Newly Weds.” Married four times, Lewis unfortunately didn’t take his own advice to read the fine print of marriage.  The failed marriages gave him a lot of literary fodder. Bad marriages aren’t funny, but his writing was.  I have two of his classic books on my bookshelf:  Don't Bend over in the Garden, Granny : You Know Them Taters Got Eyes and Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself. They cheer me up on dull days.

Unfortunately, Lewis Grizzard had a bad heart. He died in 1994 at the young age of 47. Lewis Grizzard had two great loves. He loved his mama who raised him in hard times. Grizzard’s tombstone reflects that devotion to his mama, Lewis Grizzard Jr., “Son of Christine W. Atkinson.”

Grizzard also loved his dog, Catfish, who was the subject of many of his columns. Ironically, Catfish died just a few weeks before Lewis Grizzard did. Most people don’t know that Lewis had two dogs. The other one, Cornbread, is still alive and well.

Another favorite author, Erma Bombeck, was a humorist and housewife. Erma started her career as an obituary wrier for Ohio’s Dayton Journal Herald. She was a mockingly cynical writer. Bombeck admitted to being sarcastic, but said, “Sarcasm is one of my favorite forms of humor, and if I get sarcastic with you while [I am] smiling - you can be sure it means I like you and am teasing you.”

I could relate to Erma. She too battled the bulge and often wrote about it, “I just clipped 2 articles from a current magazine. One is a diet guaranteed to drop 5 pounds off my body in a weekend.   The other is a recipe for a 6 minute pecan pie."

Erma and I shared other similarities. We both had breast cancer. We both liked the phrase, “Carpe Diem.” She paraphrased it wonderfully, “Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart."

And, finally, I enjoyed reading Celestine Sibley’s column for many, many years. She was a truly southern lady who wasn’t necessarily noted for her humor, but for her humbleness. She frequently wrote about her family and Sweet Autumn, a cabin in the north Georgia mountains. She treasured the simple life: walking her dog, Kazan, shape-note singing, seed stores, and Gershwin tunes.

When Celestine became seriously ill with breast cancer, like many others, her senses changed. She wrote, “Suddenly things seem real and vital. Perceptions are sharpened and somehow enhanced. The earth smells wonderful. You stand in the wind and it feels good. People smile and speak and you want to say with Tiny Tim, “God bless us, everyone!”

I miss Celestine Sibley. She never knew me, but I surely knew her through her writng. I especially loved the part of her obituary that she penned herself, “She lived, she died, [and] she had an awfully good time.”

 

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_{The Living Lady – nancyk@alltel.net}