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Topic: Uncles/Aunts (04/17/08)
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TITLE: Exactly, What are "Bageebees" Anyway? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Carolyn Cyphers
04/20/08 -
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Now Nancy was the youngest of six girls, all of which were graced with an amazing forte for song. They all performed the top forty standards of their own particular era. Jeannie and Janice belted out the Andrews Sisters, while Ginny, Betty, and Tommye crooned Doris Day. But Nancy had her own panache that rocked the farm. She personified the King himself, in style, inflection, and gyrations. A nine day wonder, her fame spread to the next county and beyond. She was pure, unadulterated personality, refusing to be a victim. Brash, headstrong, and extremely endowed, she rocked the county with her Blue Suede tunes.
When I’d come to Grandma’s to visit, I either had to sleep with Nancy in her room, or take the downstairs bedroom alone. Each option contained the lion’s share of horror for me. Nancy lived to scare the bageebees out of you when the lights went out, and let me tell you, there just wasn’t a darker night anywhere to be found than on that Blue Ridge Mountain farm in 1959. She was a master storyteller of mayhem and the macabre! I always suspected that there was some diabolical spell that would come over her to transform her from the fun –loving bed buddy into the maniacal being she invariably became. I do believe as I was the oldest niece she plied her craft on me in practice for the younger tots who followed in my wake.
By 1961 she has driving and then everything turned around for me. I became her instrument of freedom. She could take the car to town on Friday night if I would go along to keep her in tow! I was eleven, for goodness sakes! Now Grandpa knew that it was 15 miles for a round trip to town, so he faithfully checked the odometer upon our return, but that didn’t deter Nancy. We’d speed all the way over to Carroll County, just to see Bruce Eyeroller, who worked at Hilltop Shell Station. Not only was he her beau, but he would turn the odometer back the 26 miles that round trip entailed. I always got a Brown Mule for my silence, though, except for that one occasion, when I held out for a Nutty Buddy.
In 1964 she moved in with us while she attended business college. Now that was really like having an older sister. At fourteen, I began to learn about the mysteries of dating and romance. I would have awarded her best bed buddy/storyteller of the year, that fall, because she’d just met Billy. We all fell in love with him; just back from Viet Nam, he was heroic, idealistic, and totally charming. Besides that, he had a huge desire to continue to serve his country, and so he had enrolled at Quantico in FBI training. Winter passed into spring and before we knew it, they were married and off to Mobile. It just all seemed to change so quickly; we were all caught up in a whirlwind. I know I wasn’t ready to give her up. My big “sis” was gone the year I got my license, but maybe that was a good thing. Things have a way of turning out for the best, after all.
I hardly ever saw Nancy after that.. just for rare and very short visits. Her daughter, Charlotte, loved to hear my side of the story, which by the way, I think some of that great storytelling rubbed off on me a bit. And on very rare occasions, I enjoy scaring the bageebees out of underlings in my charge. Well, we do leave lasting impressions on each other, don’t we?
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