Another Friend of Bailey's

Somehow, my latest copy of Bailey White's Mama Makes Up Her Mind has disappeared. I've loaned it to someone and can't remember who. Somewhere, they are benefitting from the folded corners and post-its that mark my favorite stories, meaning most of the stories.

I read this book at least twice a year after I stumbled across Baily White on NPR. I knew I was hooked from the first sound of her voice, a true Southern Lady, the kind most transplants to the cities of the new South never really get to know. Her voice brought back childhood memories of live tigers in cages at Esso stations in tiny towns a hundred miles from nowhere and mountain people who would take in an entire family for the night when the car broke down in front of their house. I remembered fishing in a metal boat on the lake through an entire thunderstorm with my uncle who insisted it was the safest place to be and my father stopping to let us pick cotton just so we would know what hard work it was. I ached for a sweaty summer day, a cold glass of lemonade and bare feet.

I content myself with finding an isolated spot in the house and reading her stories out loud, laying on the drawl and the accent as heavy as I want. If I don't get it right the first time, I repeat it again and again until I feel like I've had a really good Sunday homecooked meal - two pieces of fried chicken, green beans cooked with bacon and the Southern obligatory spoonful of sugar, fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden, and a hot cobbler of whatever fruit is in season. And tea, lots of sweet tea. By the time I finish reading as many stories as I want to myself, I've laughed as much as if I sat around that Sunday dinner table with family and friends of assorted ages for at least a couple of hours.

I keep a mental list of people I would like to have lunch with and Bailey White is among the top ten. I want to talk about people who were educated by nature, who knew that being respected didn't mean having money, who could greet everyone in town by name, and never labeled their neighbors as anything more than "quirky".

I looked at my favorite online bookseller last night, only to find that Mama Makes Up Her Mind apparently is no longer in print so I ordered two new copies from resellers. I couldn't find anyone with a full case, but I would have ordered it, if I had.