(1994 November 29)
A large girl, Margie, sits across from me, speaks in a loud voice. Waitresses try to calm her down. "I SAID I DON'T WANT ANY MORE MEAT. I CAN'T CUT WHAT I HAVE ON MY PLATE." Eve says in her small voice, "Can I cut it for you?" Margie cannot hear her - I am the only one at that table with all my faculties.
Margie: "What was Emily doing here anyway?"
Waitress: "What are you talking about? There's no Emily here."
Margie: "There was."
Waitress: "Eat your supper, Margie."
Margie: "I'm trying to, but I can't cut my meat. Too tough."
Polly: "Margie is right. It was Emily Pemberton."
Then others remember her and her husband. So the waitress said: "She's not here now." And we go back to cutting our tough beef.
Polly Kay (1904-1997) vividly and with humor describes her life in Richland Center, Wisconsin, in excerpts from letters to her son Skip written after 1949, including her 5 last years in an old folks' home.
About Me
- Polly
- A lifelong Wisconsinite, Carolyn Parsons (1904-1997)got a B.A. in English at Ripon College, taught high school, and in 1930 married Lorin L. Kay, a lawyer first in Milwaukee and from 1938 on in Richland Center (he died in 1970). Their children: Mary Margaret and Richard/Skip, editor of this blog.
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