My opinion of famous people has gotten a boost! I organized a small group of ladies to accompany me to WRAL FM's Lipstick Luncheon on March 19th. My main interest in going was to hear the keynote speaker, Celia Rivenbark, who does have her own
website but does not have a page on Wikipedia. What? She is an NC Girl from Duplin County and, besides her weekly syndicated column, has authored six high-larious books. At least the two I've read were funny and, judging from the titles, the rest should be great, too.
- Bless Your Heart, Tramp and Other Southern Endearments (owned and have read it)
- We're Just Like You, Only Prettier
- Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank (have read it, but lost to an unknown borrower)
- Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits
- You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Mornin' (owned but have not yet read it)
- You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl (forthcoming)
After her speech, Celia set up in the hall to sign her books. She was extremely nice and actually stopped to allow her fans to compose themselves into a flattering picture with her, unlike
other famous people I have "met,"
and I got a decent inscription.
Although I am sad to learn that those measly six point five-ish years spent in the Cold North have rendered me unable to truly be Southern, it was a great day and we all had fun.
It was a great lunch! Thanks so much for introducing me to her books. I picked "Bless Your Heart, Tramp and Other Southern Endearments" for our April Book Club and we just met yesterday. The consensus was that everyone thought it was delightfully funny. For myself, one of our interesting discussions was about where you belong and where you say you are from when you've moved to the South from somewhere else. The South won't claim you unless you can produce a birth certificate proving you were born below the Mason-Dixon line and even then there are some Virginians they like to disqualify. And, when you move away from somewhere else and return you are now considered an outsider. You don't really belong just because you were born there and you aren't as aware of a lot of the goings-on. So, I can confidently say that I now consider myself a transplant Southerner. It can be lonely but my momma's family has roots in the South and we have carried on a lot of those traditions. I have adapted Southern ways in my family such as eating collard greens and teaching my children to address adults with Mr. Mrs., Ma'am, and Sir. However, I can still look at a sweet potato and say, "what am I supposed to do with this?"
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to these books and I hope you can meet some of the ladies from book club on Friday!