Every Christmas Eve I read Capote’s A Christmas Memory. It’s a lifelong tradition. I think I’ve just found something else I should revisit every Christmas Eve. Right before I wrap myself up.
Remember the Fruitcake Lady?
Remember her? I’m pretty sure I dated her until she stopped returning my telegrams.
I wonder if she had the same problem I did. I never returned telegrams because I’d get one and it would end with STOP, and I’d say, shucks, and I thought we were getting along so well…
I figured it was the sex toy, but I like your theory better.
“A Christmas Memory” is so beautiful and so heartbreaking. My favorite part is when the narrator and his slow, elderly cousin ask the local bartender for rum for their fruitcakes, and he asks, “Which one is you is the drinkin’ man?” When he eventually gives them a bottle, the cousin is so overjoyed she promises his cake will get an extra cupful of raisins.
I can’t like this too much, because that’s my favorite part too. Although for me it’s just a bit earlier when he looks down at the change they’ve carefully counted out and then gives it back, saying, “Just send me one of them fruitcakes instead.”
I also love it when Buddy and his cousin get in trouble for drinking the leftover whiskey (something similar happened to me as a kid), and that night he sneaks into her room and tells her it’s all right.
There was a lovely adaptation of the story starring Geraldine Page that’s only viewable on YouTube these days. http://youtu.be/nS0uurW6ZQM
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