Bailey White

Oh, Miss Bailey White!

I want to be your friend, your neighbor, heck I'd marry you if you'd have me. I just want to be near you and live the high life with you down there in Georgia.

I wouldn't mind if I had to sleep in the old folding bed that creaks in the middle of the night and folds itself back up, with the sleeper in it. I wouldn't mind eating Cathead Island oysters even though I detest seafood --but would you'd be so kind as to check them over first to make sure I don't gulp down show more anything not an oyster please?

I would love if Aunt Belle would let me tag along with y'all on her "junkets," like over to The Devil's Hoofprints where "dirt will not fill these strange depressions, and chickens will not eat out of them." How mysterious!

Do you think your mama would mind if I sat in the kitchen reading her stack of old Natural History magazines she has tottering there? I would willingly sign an injury waiver first.

Oh yes, yes of course I don't mind living with your mother too. In fact, I would be delighted. show less

More literary than I expected, more serious. Yes, it's a bunch of portraits about endearing eccentrics, but it's much more than that. I felt reminded a bit of Kingsolver, a bit of Steel Magnolias, and a bit of Shakespeare... some big human themes are encapsulated in these little stories, linked into this engaging small book. Also plenty of grace and humor.

Learning about thrips, Eula says "Well, damn their little souls."

The passionate typographer declaims that "If 'reason' is a rut, then she show more is the rising sun. If 'reason' is a rat, then she is a white rhinocerous." Read the book to find out to whom he refers. show less

I miss hearing Bailey White's distinctively scratchy voice on NPR as she spun these stories from her life. She can take the most mundane experiences and turn them into an interesting adventure. From convincing an elderly aunt that it's time to move from her home, to humanely dealing with a mouse problem, to sneaking out of a computer class to attend the dog track, Miss White knows how to entertain with graceful, self-depracating humor.

I think I read Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living, but it was so many years ago that I read it on cassette tape. If I read it all. The only thing I remembered was how much Bailey White’s bohemian mother loved Midnight Cowboy. And maybe I just heard that on National Public Radio.

It doesn’t matter because I have loved Bailey White since the 1990s, and I love her still. This collection of stories about her mother, her long-suffering sister Louise, and the oddball show more residents of White’s Thomasville, Ga., proved utterly enchanting: stories of hurricanes, disheveled housekeeping, a Native American museum, buying cars, train travel and more. Humorous and insightful, this is book to read and re-read. Highly recommended. show less