October 14, 1964
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Do you know about the Beatles? You have to have heard their song "I Want to Hold Your Hand." I mean, everybody has heard that song. Everybody!! Aunt Love holds her ears if she hears it on my little radio and Leigh, Dad's girlfriend, says they can't hold a candle to Elvis. But I sort of like them. Even if they are from England and have floppy long hair. You have to admit the song is sort of catchy.
Our 4-H Club got into some trouble because of that song. You see, we have this talent show every year and all the clubs can enter a small group act and a big club act. It's a big thing for the elementary schools. The principals and teachers arrange the acts and they make the kids practice every day. It's sort of a school pride thing and competition. But when you get to high school, the 4-H Club doesn't have all that support and we're pretty much on our own. But we did come up with a club act and sang some show tunes. Not great, but we did it.
That wasn't why we got into trouble. It was the other act. Four of the boys in our club decided to pretend to be the Beatles and lip sync "I Want to Hold Your Hand." They got wigs somewhere. Don't ask me where! I have no idea. Then they got some drums for the guy who was Ringo and guitars for the others. It was all in fun and like no act you've ever seen at a Holly County 4-H Talent Show. The girls in the club decided to do our part to make it like a real Beatles' performance. So we did a little screaming. You know like the fans do for the Beatles. As far as I know, none of us actually fainted. We were just having fun, but Miss Lester, the principal at one of the elementary schools, was not happy. Of course, Miss Lester is never happy. If she's ever smiled, there were no witnesses. Some grown-ups don't want kids to have any fun.
Dad gave me a talking to, but I don't think he was real mad or anything. He didn't make me stop listening to my radio even though he's not crazy about the Beatles. He says he doesn't think kids should be acting like four guys from England are some kind of heroes when all they're doing is singing some silly songs. He says the best hero to have is Jesus and I have to agree with that.
August 12, 1964
Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill.
I am never going to eat cotton candy again. Ever! You know I'm in 4-H. Well, for a fundraiser, somebody thought it would be great to rent a concession stand and sell soft drinks and popcorn and candy and cotton candy at a ballgame. If they'd stopped at popcorn and candy, it might have been okay. But no, the leader, Mr. Reardon, had to get a stand with a cotton candy maker in it. And who was stupid enough to volunteer to work in the stand? Me, that's who.
And who was even more stupid when we decided on jobs? "Yeah, sure," I said. "I can spin a cardboard tube and collect cotton candy on it. Sure, I can." That's one of the problems with thinking you can do anything and everything. But I'd still rather be like that than hiding over in the corner afraid to give anything a try. But this was one thing I should have hidden in a corner away from - far, far away - instead of standing there getting wrapped in a web of spun sugar.
Have you ever tried it? It's not as easy as you think it might be. That sugar spinning out will stick to everything and anything except that paper tube. I had pink sugar in my hair. I had webs of the stuff dripping down off my eyebrows. The other kids working in the stand thought it was hilarious. Of course, Jesse did burn his arm on the popcorn machine and had butter up to his elbows. The easy job was at the window taking money and handing out candy bars. Alicia got that. She looked really cute doing it too, so maybe that sold extra stuff. Thank goodness not everybody wanted cotton candy. If you don't spin that paper tube with a light hand while the sugar is spinning up in the air, then it's more like crunchy threads of sugar instead of cotton. You don't want crunch when you're buying cotton candy. You want sugary air. Something that will melt in your mouth. Not something that might break a tooth.
At last, I sort of figured out how to capture the sugary webs and then I wanted to go grab little kids and make them come buy the cotton candy, but I might barf if I have eat another bite of that sugar. I need a potato chip.
Did you ever do anything like that? Work in a concession stand? I'll bet Zella never has. She's still waiting for that Mr. Whitlow to come by with a big bunch of roses to say he's sorry for heading out of town for a few days without so much as a see you later. He is back in town, but he hasn't come to make up with Zella. He's probably scared to try it.
You don't want to mess with Zella when she's mad.
