I recently went to Goodwill, and found a worn copy of the novel, Divine Secrets of the YAYA Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells. I ADORE the movie, well, in part because the director is from Kentucky, and I will watch anything where Maggie Smith is a foul mouthed, chain smoker hooked to an oxygen tank. I have to say, usually the book is leaps and bounds better than any movie, but I feel the movie captured the embodiment of the YaYas. But to get the full effect, I suggest reading the book. Part of the reason why I love the story so much, is because I picture myself as Sidda, and my mother and my aunts are the YAYAs. I was raised by a bunch of wild, complex, beautiful and mesmerizing women. It is easy for me to romanticize them, but as soon as I read the book, they came to my mind.
Southern women, (especially Kentucky girls) take great pride in just that, being Southern. The books DRIPS with Southern imagery, lore, music, sayings, recipes and anything else you can think of. Wells touches on friendship, love, illness, addiction and Motherhood. I believe those are some subjects, that all of us "belles" can relate to, and understand. Here are 16 quotes every Southern woman should appreciate, and 16 reasons to read the damn book.
1: “It’s life. You don’t figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.”
2: “I have been to the edge and lived to tell the tale..”
3: “But all she wanted to do was lie in bed, eat Kraft macaroni and cheese, and hide from the alligators.”
4: “Sometimes you just have to reach out and grab what you want, even when they tell you not to. This is something that I've struggled with my whole life long.”
5: “... a full moon shimmered over central Louisiana. This was no rinky-dink moon. This was a moon you had to curtsy to. A big, heavy, mysterious, beautiful, bossy moon. The kind you want to serve things to on a silver platter.”
6: “…the love we most cherish will, of necessity, bring us pain. Because that love is like the setting of a body with broken bones. But I want to stage the setting. I want to direct all scenes.”
7:" This is a cardinal Ya-Ya rule: you must meet each person's eyes while clinking glasses in a toast. Otherwise, the ritual has no meaning, it's just pure show. And that is something the Ya-Yas are not.”
8: “I wish I knew then what I know now - and still had those thighs!”
9: “Do you think any of us know how to love?! Do you think anybody would ever do anything if they waited until they knew how to love?! Do you think that babies would ever get made or meals cooked or crops planed or books written or what God-damn-have-you? Do you think people would even get out of bed in the morning if they waited until they knew how to love? You have had too much therapy. Or not enough. God knows how to love, kiddo. The rest of us are only good actors.
Forget love. Try good manners.”
10: “It was the kind... of Southern women... who believe... that it is impossible to arrive in a new place without a pair of shoes to match every possible change of clothes.”
11: "I am the kind of woman who loves hurricanes. They put me in a party mood. Make me want to eat oysters on the half shell, and act slutty."
12: “I want to lay up like that, to float unstructured, without ambition or anxiety. I want to inhabit my life like a porch.”
13: "The only disease that can survive in our bloodstreams is alcoholism."
14:" I am sick of fighting! And, I am sick to death of this whole center of the universe, holier than thou, nothing is ever enough. Oh, how I've suffered, nobody understands me. Somebody fix me a drink and hand me a Nebutol, worn out Scarlett O'Hara... thang!"
15: "Now, I don't want any candles on my cake. It'll look like the burning of Atlanta!"
16: "You know, Teensy, ever since you quit drinking you've stopped thinking clearly. How can I possibly call somebody who no longer exists? Give me the phone!"
Cherish the "YaYas" in your life. Girlfriends are few and far between. Be proud to be a Southerner, love your mama, never stop laughing, always have fun, and don't forget the stop and listen to the ice clinking in your glass!
