Truman Capote was a well known writer who grew up in rural Alabama in the 1930s. His stories recall nostalgic memories of his childhood spent with his best friend Ms. Sook . In retrospect these memories are no different than that of your average twelve year old boy. Yet these tales are made adventurous by his maiden aunt whose IQ is no higher than that of her twelve year old best friend. Together Truman recalls the mischief and goodtimes these two miscrients had during these holiday times.
In Holiday Memories Truman speaks of he and Ms. Sook baking thirty fruit cakes. He tells how he and his friend go about gathering money to buy the ingredients needed to make the fruit cakes. In order for them to have whiskey for the fruitcakes they had to go see Haha Jones the only bootlegger in the area. After baking the cakes and sprinkling each with the whiskey they each poured a glass and drank it.
Truman Capote , 1948
English: Truman Capote
Truman Capote, 1959.While dancing around the aunts came in and caught them and scoulded the both of them. As the days grew nearer to Christmas day they get more anxious. Truman tells of the two of them getting a tree to put in the house. They were to poor to afford decorations from the five and dime so they made their own decorations for the tree. Instead of buying gifts for each other the two friends made each other kites. On Christmas day the two were up at dawn and couldn't resist the urge to wake everyone in the household so they could open presents. After opening presents they both went and flied there kites.
In the Thanksgiving Visitor Truman is being constantly harassed by a bully at school named Odd Henderson. Odd terrorizes him everyday by putting burrs in his hair and making him late for class. When he gets to class he is confronted by his teacher who accuses him of playing instead of coming to class. For punishment the teacher slaps his hand with a ruler five times. This does not sit well with Truman who thinks Odd is the son of the devil. When Truman tells his friend Ms. Sook about this incident she thinks it would be a good idea to invite Odd over for Thanksgiving dinner. Truman thinks that Ms. Sook is crazy for even mentioning it. Ms. Sook thinks that this will solve all of the problems between he and Odd. Truman thinks that the world has come to an end, but then he has a revelation that maybe Odd won't show up. Truman is in a great mood the day of Thanksgiving. All of the relatives are there and everything is going smooth until Odd shows up. When he shows up Truman goes upstairs and hides in his special hiding spot in the closet. The stained glass window in the closet door has a small hole in it in which you can survey the whole room. As time passes Truman sees his great aunt Mary Taylor Wheelright checking herself in the mirror. As Truman is about to leave his spot he sees Odd coming up the stairs going to the bathroom. Truman decides to stay in his spot to see what happens. As Odd is leaving to go downstairs he stops to look at the jewelry laying on top of the dresser. He spots a rather nice Cameo which he sticks in his pocket. When Truman goes back downstairs to the table he tells everyone that there is a thief at the table. He then points at Odd and tells everyone about Odd stealing the Cameo. Ms. Sook then told Truman to sit down and quit accusing his guest of stealing when he did no such thing. Truman then tells Ms. Sook to go check to see if the Cameo was still there. When Ms. Sook comes back from checking on the Cameo she says that it was nonsense and that Truman shouldn't speak badly of his guests. Then Odd stands up and fesses up to stealing the Cameo and walks out the door. Then he yells at Ms. Sook claiming that he thought she was his friend and ran out of the house. Truman ran to his secret hiding place which was a old coal shed. After a few minutes Ms. Sook came and found him and talked to him. When she got thru they where friends again and went back to the house to finish dinner.
In these stories you could feel a since of caring brought forth on both of their parts. The feelings shared between the two of them was almost that of a bond between a mother and child yet in a sense there is a friendly bond between them. When I read this story it brought back memories from the past. This story also makes you think of the future spending Christmas with your family and friends.
Sook issue 6
Sook Yin Lee
Jamin and Sook