love someone who lacks the good taste to return the compliment, move on. Youre better off without him or her.
If your cat or dog doesnt like someone, trust your cat or dog.
Obey the Ten Commandments. And they are the Ten Commandments not the Ten Suggestions.
Having memorized them, I dont recall any exhortation not to smoke, drink, or overeat. Now if you stop smoking and drinking, you may not live longer but it will seem longer.
Any offer too good to be true, is.
Well, Ive rattled on, hopped around, Im not much of a speech giver. I still have goals, old as I am, and hope you do, too. Ive pretty much given up on self-improvement, but there are things Id like to know, such as the fact that cats were worshipped for milennia in ancient Egypt. When did that practice stop? And why dont our cats notice?
Another thing, and this is just something from our community: In 1964 a young blacksmith was found dead in the road. No one ever caught the killer, and Ive always wanted to know who did it. Its our countys Black Dahlia case.
Id like to see one of my horses or one of my nieces horses win the Maryland Cup, which is a steeplechase race. She smiled broadly. Small goals, they wont set the world on fire, but if you have a goal, youll push on.
I wish each of you a long life if you have the will to live it, and life takes will. Perhaps someday something in my ramblings will pop into your head and youll think, She knew her beans.
As for aging, dont fear it. Aging is a return to your true self. The mind understands time, the heart does not. My heart is here at William Woods: the century is irrelevant.
She lifted her right hand, palm open, and gestured to the assembled. Onward and upward.
With that, she came out from behind the podium and bowed, balancing on her cane. The gesture was not lost on her, for in more primitive times, one lowered ones head to the hetman or leader. If your performance displeased, off with your head.
Aunt Tallys remained securely on her shoulders, for the audience
cheered. The young people in the audience liked that she spoke to them without a whiff of bullshit. That alone was worth applause.
Inez rose, as did Jahnae. Inez, having lived almost to one hundred herself, agreed with every word Tally had uttered. Shed lived long enough to know that Americans were like Gulliver in Lilliput: tied down by cords of government regulation. And like Gulliver, we must free ourselves, she thought to herself.
One willowy girl in the audience wiped away a tear. Even if she had to stand in line for an hour at the reception to talk to Tally, she would do it.
They filed out of the auditorium to the reception room, where dinner was waiting. Few students could have paid for this special dinner, nor could some of the over-eighty alumnae. Big Mim, asking for anonymity, had paid for the entire feast.
The Ivy Room, decorated in green and burgundy, smelled of roast beef, which was being served buffet style. As freshmen, sophomores, and most juniors were underage, no alcohol was served. However, Jahnae, being a wonderful hostess, had ordered a pitcher with Tanqueray and nestled it in a champagne bucket stuffed with shaved ice. The bucket sported burgundy-and-dark-green ribbons with an enormous bow. A place card reading Tally Urquhart in italics signified Tallys seat at the table. The vermouth was in a silver teapot, and the olives were on a small silver plate, toothpicks spearing them.
Jahnae had arranged for waitstaff to bring filled dishes to the three tables of over-eighty alumnae. Some of the women would not have been able to get the food and carry it. A student waiter was in charge of alcoholic drinks at those special tables. He was amazed at how much those old girls could knock back.
The members of the alumnae board were seated at a table adjacent to Tallys.
Once the room was filled, Jahnae briefly welcomed everyone and encouraged them to enjoy the food. After dessert and coffee, students and friends could speak with their celebrated guest.
At the head table, Jahnae whispered to Tally that the vermouth was in the silver teapot.
Youve thought of everything, Aunt Tally praised her, as she fixed herself a liberal martini, then mixed a second one for Inez and a third for Little Mim. Big Mim rarely drank any form of alcohol and Harry drank only beer.
But the weather, Jahnae laughed.
Aunt Tally offered to mix a martini for Jahnae. The bartenders hand makes a mean martini, she said. In the South, the bartenders hand is the secret ingredient to a perfect drink. Jahnae understood and whispered, On duty. That was easier than saying no, since Tally liked to share. Jahnae wasnt much of a drinker.
Harry held up her drink as Jahnae stood.
To Tally Urquhart, an example to us all, a woman of high intelligence and keen observation and a born hell-raiser. Jahnae laughed again.
Big Mim, looking nothing like her seventy-some years, her jewelry understated but major, held up her iced tea. To my aunt, who so resembles my mother and my brother, Myron, who died on the Bataan Death March: Heres to one hundred more years. Jahnae, might I add that if you had to live with her, the hell-raising might wear on you a bit. Big Mim laughed. Aunt Tally, you really are one in a million.
Another toast and more laughter.
Next, Inez proposed a toast. Here we are in 2009. Seventy-eight years of friendship with rarely a cross word but gales of laughter. May each of you have a friend so dear.
While toasts continued at table one, the alumnae board at table two put on a good face, but they were reeling over Mariahs disappearance as well as at the questioning by the police.
Liz Filmore, whose husband, Tim, sat next to her, moaned, It seems so odd not to have Mariah here.
No one mentioned Pete, since he rarely accompanied Mariah. They usually went their separate ways.
For one thing, its quieter. Flo rose and made her way to the buffet table, which was already jammed with students.
The students gave way to Flo. They would have in most instances, but Gayle Lampe had impressed upon them to honor the alumnae
board. As most of the assembled knew Gayle from the riding program, shed been able to talk to them at the stables. This made her appealher order, reallymore powerful. She had also impressed upon them the need to converse with the over-eighty crowd. Shed quipped, You might learn something.
At the alumnae board table Andrea Rolf, an energetic member from the class of 1989, was nobodys fool. Liz, drop it. We dont want Tally to get wind of it. Not during her time of triumph, anyway.
Liz halfway listened, then asked, Did you like her?
Tally or Mariah? Andrea couldnt help but tease her.
Mariah, of course. Liz had knocked back two well-made daiquiris, and on a blizzard night, no less. Her husband kept a watchful eye without being too noticeable about it. Shed managed to guzzle more drinks when hed been pulled away in conversation. He knew she was unsteady just as he knew no matter how hard he tried, shed knock back the booze.
Yes, I liked her. Her endless drawing of attention to her accomplishments was wearing thin, but I got along with her just fine.
Ill go with. Liz used the Midwestern shorthand for Ill go with you as she rose to accompany her husband to the buffet. A bit of the Midwest had rubbed off on her during her four years in Fulton, as it had on all the graduates.
He put his hands under her elbows, all but lifting her up.
As the Filmores left for the buffet table, DeeDee Halstead, the alumnae member from Los Angeles, class of 1978, picked up her whiskey sour. To Tally.
They stood, holding their glasses, and boomed out, To Tally.
Liz, now at the buffet table, moaned, How could they do that without me?
Tim, hoping to keep her level, said, You can make as many toasts as you want back at the table.