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A Book Update on “The Palmetto Pioneers”

June 25, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, Genealogy, Palmetto Pioneers

I keep plugging away at the book. Here are five things I did this week.

1. I spend two days a week working in two separate libraries. One is the Genealogy Room of the Jefferson County Library in Monticello, Florida, where most of the story takes place. The second library is the State of Florida Archives and Library in the R. A. Gray Building, Tallahassee.  

For the last several weeks I’ve been working on Civil War camp life and the building of the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad, specifically the railroad line that ran from Tallahassee to Alligator, Florida. Alligator’s name was later changed to Lake City.

2. The reason I’ve been studying this railroad line is because Mary’s husband William listed his occupation in 1860 as railroad agent. I went into this thinking that he was probably something like the head of a depot, but I found later that these positions were called depot agents. I thought he may have run a depot in either Jefferson County’s towns of Aucilla or Drifton, which was at one time called Walker Mill. Remember that Mary’s maiden name was Walker. 

 I found, though, that former territorial Congressman Edward Cabell was president of this railroad line at the time; and according to his 1845 railroad company minutes, he asked the Board of Directors if he could hire a railroad agent. He described this person’s job as someone who would handle all of the paperwork that was mounting as they were getting closer to building the railroad. They had not begun to build this railroad yet in 1855, and they wouldn’t begin building it until 1858. They finished it in 1861.

I’m beginning to think that William might have been this railroad agent. Here’s why. 

3. I discovered that this same Edward Cable was also the census enumerator for the state of Florida in 1850. In a newspaper article in Jacksonville in 1853, he asked Congress to do a memorial commemorating his six Florida Deputy Census Enumerators. The newspaper listed one of these men as William H. Andrews, so we know that William and Edward Cable had worked together before. I’m still looking for confirmation, though.

4. Also this week I developed a Pic Collage of photographs of William and Mary’s children. I still do not have a clear enough picture of what William and Mary looked like. Here is the collage of four of their children.  They are full siblings.

  
5. I attended an Andrews Reunion in Madison, Florida last Sunday, where I received the picture of Valentine Andrews. I also recently got two more pictures from a Texas relative. One picture was Henry Andrews as a young man and Florida Andrews, who later changed her name to Mary Elizabeth, renaming herself after her mother and stepmother. So here is a collage of William’s children from both Mary and his first wife Elizabeth, including Florida mentioned above.

  
That’s all for now!

Watch Out Boys, Here Come the Astronaut Wives

June 12, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: TV

Don’t you just love these retro-inspired TV series and movies?

Whereas “Mad Men” was a sixties drama centered around men, the latest TV news is about a coming series entitled “The Astronaut Wives Club”, which is a sixties drama centered around seven women.  One of the first trailers I saw showed the actresses in a press conference mostly dressed in pastel shirtdresses.

From the TV Series

From the TV Series

The shirtdresses quickly took me down memory lane.  I remember well the first time my mother took me shopping in a retail store in Tallahassee called “The Vogue”, a boutique located on the west side of Monroe Street between College and Park.  She bought me a Ladybug shirtdress, which was a junior line from The Villager label.  Both Ladybug and The Villager was very tony at the time; and the size 3 dress came with a little ladybug stickpin, which was akin to wearing a designer label.  I cannot remember if the dress was pastel, but I do believe it had a tiny print on it.

None of this mattered, though, at the time; because what was really important was the fact that I was finally big and old enough to shop in a women’s dress store.   All we girls wanted was to be grown up!

And poor dad.  Those dresses were not cheap.

Click here> Who What Wear to see their latest blog post entitled “Exclusive!  Behind the Swinging 60’s Wardrobe of The Astronaut Wives Club”.  “Who What Wear” says that Emmy-winning costume designer Eric Daman is the talent behind the gorgeous swinging sixties wardrobe. In this blog he shares an inside look into how he launched the signature styles of the women behind America’s first astronauts.

By the way many of the characters in this new series have last names that we baby boomers can identify –names like Louise Shepard, Rene Carpenter, Betty Grissom, Trudy Cooper, and Annie Glenn.  The series is based on the best-selling novel by Lily Koppel. The novel is said to be a true story.  These everyday families were thrust into American history and became a big part of our sixties culture.  These women quickly went from anonymity to ticker tape parades in New York City.

The Book Cover

The Book Cover

 

Click Here for a teaser trailer of the new show.  Unfortunately, it took my computer a little while to load, so please be patient.  It is worth it.

I also noticed that many of the TV scenes look like the Cape area in Florida.  That should be fun for those of us who grew up here in the Sunshine State.

Below are more photos to compare, the top one showing the actresses and the bottom photo showing some of the real astronaut wives at a party in Virginia.

The TV Series

The TV Series

The Real Astronaut Wives

The Real Astronaut Wives

I guess you know where I’ll be on June the 18th.  I’ll be watching “The Astronaut Wives Club” on ABC.  The ten episodes begin on June 18 on a Thursday at 8/7c.

 

 

 

Far From The Maddening Crowd: A Movie Review

May 26, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

Chuck picked out a movie last Saturday, and we went to see “Far from the Maddening Crowd.”  I loved this movie.  Now I want to read the book which is a literary classic by Thomas Hardy.

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I was unfamiliar with the actors, but I’m a new fan of Matthias Schoenaerts.  He played a wonderful part; in fact all the characters seemed to be perfectly cast.   Matthias Schoenaerts, though, plays a Robert Redford part.  He’s a hunk in it, and women will swoon.

The story is about an independent and headstrong young woman named Bathsheba Everdene who is played by Carey Mulligan.  She attracts three very different men–Gabriel Oak played by Matthias Schoenaerts who is a sheep farmer, Frank Troy played by Tom Sturridge the handsome and immature Sergeant, and William Boldwood played by Michael Sheen a wealthy gentleman.  Bathsheba inherits her wealth and becomes caught up in this three-way romantic entanglement.

Set in a pastoral setting in Victorian England, the cinematography is beautiful.  Best movie Chuck and I both have seen in a good while.  I believe it will be nominated for several Oscars.

An Update on the Book: Mary Hobnobs with Some Washington Elite

April 7, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books, Genealogy, Palmetto Pioneers

About the book I’m writing, I apologize that you haven’t heard from me since late January.  Problem was, though, I got myself involved in the Family History Writing Challenge, which asked me to pledge how much I would write daily.  Since I’m a fast writer, I signed up for 500 words a day.  No problem writing that many words a day, but I did struggle with acquiring the needed research for the exercise.

By the end of February, I compiled 28 different scenes for the book.  However, the research still isn’t complete; and I’m sure I’ll have to rewrite every one of those scenes.

Also, each morning I received an email with suggestions on how to proceed.  These emails were entitled, for example, “How to Find Your Focus”, “Creating Your Authentic Ancestor”, and “How to Begin Your Story:  A Checklist”.  These emails were like workbook pages, and I was unable to go through the exercises that quickly.  So this past month I’ve been going back to each of these emails and filling out the information.  This exercise has been so helpful.

One of the exercises required some thought into the process of naming the book.  It strongly encouraged picking out a name, even if I plan to change it in the future.  So I picked out a temporary name.  I chose this name because Mary came to Florida from the South Carolina low country southwest of Charleston near the Little Salkhatchee River.  South Carolina is also known as the palmetto state.  The family moved to Jefferson County in Florida and settled west of the Aucilla River, an area where palmettos grow thick, especially on the river’s flood plain.  They arrived there around 1828, so they were Florida pioneers.  From here on I will refer to the book as the “Palmetto Pioneers”.

Oak Hammock with a Palmetto Floor

Oak Hammock with a Palmetto Floor

Hopefully, I will do better at keeping everyone posted more often.

Below is another scene from the book–a first draft.  First, though, here is a little information to give a little setting.

One reason I chose Mary for my main character was because of her station in life, which changed dramatically when she married.  As mentioned earlier, she was raised the daughter of a South Carolina/Florida planter/cattleman.  Her family settled in the wilderness in eastern Jefferson County.  She had lived in Florida since she was six years old.

Mary married, though, the son of a Washington, DC merchant.  William Andrews had joined the army with his friend Robert Gamble when they were both in their earlier 20s.  Robert Gamble and William first came to Florida to fight Indians in the 1820s, but they went back to Washington, DC/Baltimore, married and later returned to Florida with their families to settle.

William’s spouse died and left him with four children.  That is when he married Mary, whose family lived nearby.  Mary and William’s first years were spent living near her father, but by the mid 1850s they had moved into Monticello where William became a sheriff of Jefferson County.

Below is a scene from when they lived in Monticello.  We know that they lived near the Cuthbert’s house which was next door to the Episcopal church.  Today, the Cuthbert’s house is the house where the attorney Mike Reichman used to practice law.  It is still standing.

The scene is a first draft, and it is meant to reflect the differences in the ladies, including Mary and her guests.  Robert Gamble’s wife Letitia and her niece Laura come to visit Mary.  Laura’s complaints are authentically hers.  In real life she kept a diary, and this is what she thought of the area.  Here is how it goes.

 

Mary listened to Laura Randall complain and kept silent. She couldn’t quite understand why the woman was so unhappy. “Mary, I don’t know how you and your family stood it all those years. The mosquitoes scarcely retire in the morning before the yellow flies begin. This is certainly the country for studying entomology. There is an infinite variety of insects.”

Laura Randall was wearing a gown of lilac cotton trimmed in burgandy. It was beautiful, and Mary had never seen one so beautiful up so close. No one from where she lived out in the country dressed like this. She knew that Laura’s father was federal Attorney General William Wirt and that Laura’s family was from Baltimore.

All of this was so new and so very interesting. All the talk from William about these big cities and their beautiful buildings. The information spun around in her head like the setting of a fairy tale, and yet here was one of the fairy tale princesses sitting right here in her living room.

Mary looked around her and was immediately embarrassed. Her living room was sparsely appointed with four wooden chairs, a fireplace, a desk where William worked at home and a small table where she kept her sewing.  In one corner was a weave, and on the floor was a new woven rug that she had made herself.  Laura was obviously used to much better than this, and yet this was so much roomier and better than what Mary was used to having.

Laura continued “and there is not a piece of rope to be had in this place, but what we really need is a tavern. Just yesterday five men rode up to our door and gave their horses to the servant as if he were an hostler of an Inn. Then they walked right in to breakfast, which was just ready; and we had to make room at the table.”

She shook her head and added, “They had all stayed the night before at Colonel Gadsden’s, riding up at nine o’clock just when the family was going to bed. I really think our neighborhood would do well to support a tavern for these intruders.”

Letitia Gamble added, “I thought a lot of that had stopped. I guess we are too far off the main road now.” Letitia, as if she knew what was on Mary’s mind said, “I do remember though how hard it was in those early days after we first arrived. The house at Welaunee was a double log cabin, daubed with mud and surrounded by dead trees. We finally replaced it moving farther away from the road, and though this land was difficult at first, we finally learned to adapt. Robert was certainly never disappointed. He loved it from the first time he laid eyes on it.”

Then Laura said, “Well, I have to admit that it finally grew on me, too.  I do love my garden, and thank goodness we started butchering cattle and hogs and learned to share with others so the meat never spoils. This seems to always put good meat on the table.”

Mary remembered what William had told her about these families, that they were all raised high on the hog, and they didn’t seem to know what to do or how to live in such difficult surroundings. Laura added, “I even learned how to make beer, thanks to you Aunt Letitia.”

Letitia said, “I guess if there is one good thing about this country, it is that it made us all realize the importance of sharing and taking care of each another. One can afford to be an individualist when one is wealthy and live near the finer things of life, but out here with only ourselves and nature, it is an entirely different situation. One must learn to share and to rely on others.”

Laura was looking off in the distance. “Laura, a penney for your thoughts?” said Mary.

Laura looked back at her Aunt Letitia. “Do you remember when I had to nurse your Cecily.” Letitia smiled at her neice, “I sure do.”

She turned to Mary, “That was something unheard of where we’re from, but now we know that it is a commonplace thing down here.” I was depending on a milch cow to feed Cicily, and Laura was visiting. Well, anyway, that afternoon we discovered that the milk supply had spoiled, and Cicily was screaming and wouldn’t stop. Laura, here, just said, ‘Give me Cicily’, and she disappeared. The crying stopped. I knew right then that this country was going to be totally different from anything we had ever witnessed.”

Laura added, “The last time I went to visit mama in Baltimore, we had to take along two milk goats to help me nurse Jonathan. Those goats sure didn’t like that ship and the bleating was horrible.”

 

So there you have a brief scene from the book.  It will change a lot over the next few weeks.  The transitions from one person to the other need a lot of rewriting, which will help the reader follow who is talking.  Each of these characters will be fleshed out so one gets a better picture of what they look like and how they are expected to act.

 

 

Movie Review: The Imitation Game–Would You Be Here Today If Not For Alan Turing?

January 11, 2015 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

You may owe Alan Turing a favor.  His was the brilliant mind behind a machine that broke the German code used during World War II.  You owe him a favor, because you may not be here today were it not for his work at Bletchley Circle in England.

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What he did shortened the war by two to four years saving from 14 to 21 million lives.  If your father or grandfather fought in World War II and survived, there is a good chance that he wouldn’t have if Alan Turing had not existed.

Harold’s father was in the Normandy Invasion.  He was one of the Ninety-Day Wonders who was trained specifically for the naval operations there.  He was part of the second wave at Omaha Beach.

Intelligence gathering and leaking set up the invasion to happen at the right time and the right place for the allied forces and the wrong time and place for the Germans.  Harold realizes that what this man did may have saved his father’s life if not at Normandy then later in the weeks and months after the invasion.

Go see the movie, “The Imitation Game”, on the big screen.  Harold and I went last night, and we can’t stop talking about it today.  It was that riveting.  Also, the word is spreading, because the theatre was full, more than two weeks after its release.

It is the story of Alan Turing, and the role he played in World War II.  Some say what he and his team of crytographers did was just short of a miracle.

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Benedict Cumberbatch gave a great performance as Turing.  Keira Knightley is superb as his friend and fiancé.  The rest of the cryptographers were perfectly cast, each playing an important supporting role.  The setting was authentic.

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The movie is historical, biographical, emotional and a true life drama.   It is also a thriller, and I was disappointed when it ended because I didn’t want it to end.   It was well worth the dollars spent.  If you loved the series, “The Bletchley Circle”, you’ll love this.

Nominated for Best Movie, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, it is a movie that both critics and the general population love.  It got five Golden Globe nominations and a chest full of other accolades already.  I cannot wait to see what it gets at the Academy Awards.

The Goodbye Girl: A Movie Review

November 10, 2014 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

Goodbye

Harold and I recently watched “The Goodbye Girl” on Netflix starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason.

I forgot how much I enjoyed Richard Dreyfuss in films.  Remember, he played a teenager in “American Graffiti”, an oceanographer in “Jaws”, and a mid-western electrical lineman in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.  Of course, that is only three of the many, many films he made.  I forgot about “The Goodbye Girl”, for which he won an Oscar at the age of 30.

“The Goodbye Girl”, a comedy-drama film, was made in 1977.  That was an important year in my life.  My first child was born, and we probably didn’t get to go to many movies that year.

Here’s a little of the story line.  Dreyfuss plays a struggling actor who sublets a New York apartment from a friend.  Problem is, his friend is a real Dick, because he skips town and dumps his dancer girlfriend played by Mason.  Unaware that she has been dumped, she is still living in the apartment with her young precocious daughter.

Dreyfuss finds himself with no place to stay and a woman living in his sublet apartment.

Neil Simon always could come up with the best screenplays.

Harold and I both loved the movie.  Neither one of us could remember seeing the film, though we thought we both had.  After watching, though, we are not sure.  Almost forty years is a long time.

You will love the chemistry between Dreyfuss and Mason.  The one-liners are great.  We laughed and laughed.

The movie was also nominated that year for best picture.  Here is one of my favorite scenes.

Check it out, and please let me know what you think.

 

Gone Girl: A Movie Review

October 25, 2014 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

Ever gone to see a movie, and walked away just hating it?  Well, I did that last night.

Harold wanted to go see the movie “Gone Girl”.  I checked its reviews, and it seems that everyone loves this movie.  So we went.

I found myself mesmerized by the plot, the characters, the actors, even the fashions.  Then something happened.

Gone Girl4

It ended, and I hated the entire movie.

I told Harold as I left the theatre, “That movie is what is wrong with America today.”  He told me that I needed to come down off my high horse.

Well, I cannot help it.  Lately, I’ve been wondering about our ability as humankind to look at someone and determine if they have an unsavory character or if this is someone we can depend on.

We idolize movie stars, who live lives totally different from our own.  We place politicians on a pedestal that no one can remain upon, and then we tear them down until they are the lowest of the low.  And we place our faith in their hands, even before we get a chance to understand them.  How can we understand them, when our media gives us only what they want us to see.

We take a violent juvenile, and then we take their side even when our gut tells us otherwise.  Lines are crossed constantly, and our young people are always watching.

And now I sit through a movie that takes me on a ride and lines are crossed again until I watch something totally wrong, totally out of character, and I am expected to chuckle when it is over–to not take things or it too seriously.  I find myself slipping away, wondering if I will reach a time when I can no longer judge right from wrong for myself.

So I hated this movie, because I felt duped again.  I fell into the trap, and I could have easily shrugged it off and gone my way.  The problem, though, is that my better judgment says otherwise.   There is a bigger picture here, but we all tend to just sweep it under the rug–especially to be remain cool.

All the values that I gained from my parents, my childhood, my teachers and my extended family tell me that watching all this media that seeks to distort my mind is just not good for me.  I feel myself changing, and I do not like it.

Gone Girl3

Those values that I gained from my earlier days are what guide me to help others, to be patient, to be understanding, and to be kind.  I worry that we and our children are not getting enough of the these attributes and are getting too much of the distortions.

Gone Girl2

The movie was good, but I wish I had never seen it.

Lucy – A Movie Review

October 15, 2014 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

Lucy2

I don’t usually care much for these action-packed crazy movies where the main characters wreck cars–lots of cars–and leap tall buildings.  Well, at least not since Superman; but the trailers for the movie, “Lucy” intrigued me.  Harold was super surprised, when I said that I wanted to see this movie.

Lucy played by Scarlet Johansson is a woman, who accidentally gets caught up in a dark deal.  I would call it a drug deal, but this drug is more than your common street drug.

Something happens to Lucy, and she turns the tables on her captors and transforms herself into a warrior, a superhuman.  She evolves beyond human logic; but the role of Professor Norman, played by Morgan Freeman, helps explain what is happening to her.

These are great performances by both Johansson and Freeman.  The science fiction story line is intriguing and gets you thinking.  In fact I woke up the next morning doing just that–thinking about the entire concept.  Don’t you love it, when you are still thinking about a movie long after you see it?

If there is a criticism, it would be the weird ending or a lead character who is using almost all the capacity of her brain but continues running in high heels.  I guess that part was for Harold and all the other male viewers.

In all, though, I enjoyed the movie very much.  It was interesting, thought provoking, and unpredictable.  For you who love action-packed movies, there is plenty of this as well.

Lucy realizes that she can visualize all the communication from cell phones, etc.

Lucy realizes that she can visualize all the communication from cell phones, etc.

Most of all, it got me to thinking about what the human mind is really capable of if it were used to its fullest potential.  This story would have made a great “Twilight Zone” episode.

Favorite Quote of the Movie by Morgan Freeman’s Character:  “We humans are more concerned with having than with being.”  So true.

What movies have you seen that we should check out?

Now, Voyager: A Movie Review About a Classic, Romantic Movie

September 28, 2014 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Movies

Harold and I watched a wonderful, old classic movie last night. Neither of us had ever heard of it. Released in 1942 the film is best described as a romantic melodrama, but a very good one. It was voted #23 of AFI’s Top 100 Romantic Films of All Time.

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Bette Davis does a wonderful job of acting. Initially, she plays the un-glamorous late-born, baby sister Charlotte Vail, who is dowdy, overweight and frustrated by a domineering high-society mother, who is more like a grandmother than a mother. Claude Rains plays the psychiatrist who comes to her rescue, and the good-looking Paul Heinreid plays the romantic stranger.

The plot begins simple enough. Charlotte’s kind sister-in-law worries that Charlotte is unwell and moving toward a nervous breakdown, and she asks a psychiatrist to help. He sees Charlotte as repressed and then works to help her transform into a modern woman, with the strength and confidence to free herself from her repressive mother.

It is on a cruise where she spends time alone, blossoms into the glamorous socialite that she becomes, and meets a romantic stranger. What happens from there is a seesaw of emotions, especially when she moves back home with her domineering mother.

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The title of the movie and book was taken from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.


The Untold Want
By Life and Land Ne’er Granted
Now, Voyager
Sail Thou Forth to Seek and Find

Directed by Irving Rapper, the movie’s screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty. The film was nominated for a total of three Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Bette Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (Gladys Cooper), with Max Steiner’s nomination for musical score as the sole win (his second Oscar). Bette Davis’s cruise wardrobe and gowns are best described as timeless glamour.

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Without giving away the story, their relationship becomes a romantically-complicated love, as evidenced by the film’s last stirring line of romantic dialogue: “Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.” A line made immortal to its movie goers.

Harold and I both loved it; but then again, lately, one of Harold’s favorite lines is, “Gosh, Ann, you’re turning me into a chick!”

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Have any of you ever heard about this film? What other romantic classics would you suggest?

Watch for The Book “Far Outside the Ordinary” to Become a Movie — A Book Review

September 22, 2014 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Books

I don’t know where to begin, except to say that I absolutely loved this book. It is a quick, captivating read. Whether or not you can relate to the situations in the book, you will still not be able to stop turning pages. You will love Prissy Elrod’s style of writing.

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Southerner Prissy Elrod, the author, is the steel magnolia in this story when she does what she has to do to save her husband, her family and herself. It has a fairy tail beginning and a fairy tail ending. It is what is in between though that tugs at your heart strings.

What many don’t know is that a magnolia blossom is very fragile, and the least little bump leaves a bruise that shows up almost the moment it happens. Prissy Elrod is a steel magnolia. She bruises, but she maintains her outward metal, and she survives. This book is her proof.

There is nothing ordinary about dealing with a loved one and their cancer diagnosis, but what Prissy Elrod did was ordinary. She did the best she could.

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What happens to her, though, is far outside the ordinary. There is a twist in the story that is never expected.

All of us who have been in her shoes found ourselves living each day one at a time and making decisions for which we were never prepared, all the while on a cacophony of emotions sweeping us along whether we were ready or not. She captures this in her memoir.

Expect a roller coaster of tears, desperation, persistence, laughter, zaniness, hope, heartache, heartbreak, humor, pain, anger, anguish, sorrow, hope lost, fear, compassion, frustration, and renewal. Sometimes, you will feel the bewildering and competing emotions all at once, like when I found myself laughing through my tears.

Elrod hurled me down into the darkness of despair when she reminded me of my own experiences in this realm, when the unintended consequences make us realize that the decisions were never easy. She tells her story so well.
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Mostly, I was amazed by her candor and humility. Years ago my elderly great aunt who was a prolific reader told me that she was disappointed in the new books. She said that it was as if each younger author was simply trying to out-shock the last.

My aunt felt that contemporary literature was lacking in honesty, and that the stories seemed to be written for their ability to provoke massive fear, anxiety or disgust.

I wish she had lived long enough to read, “Far Outside the Ordinary,”. She would have loved this moving, honest account of a family’s tragedy and perseverance through adversity.

The book has small-town living, fashion, international travel, intrigue, shamans, shady medical clinics, a capitol city’s political high-society, tragedy, miracle treatments, love stories, and the uplifting love of family and friends. Elrod carried me for a ride through her life.

Though a memoir, it reads like southern fiction at its best. It reminded me of a cross between “Steel Magnolias” and “The Help”.

I hope she will continue writing, because she has a voice I would like to hear again. I also believe this would make a great movie. The characters are rich.

She did a great job of describing their uniqueness. I believe the characters will get her a movie deal in the end. They are zany, comical, quirky, and just what we have come to expect in southern movies.

So do yourself a favor and read this wonderful book before it becomes a movie!

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