Zelda with a "Z"

   June continues to seem like a long month to me. Summer slow, where the air begins to get thick. I yearn for these days. My back door is open, and Satan's humidity is creeping into my diggings. Atlanta is no Miami hot, but it will certainly cause you to wet your whistle! Ice water, sweet tea with lemon, a little something to ease the pain, so you can wither away longer. These are reading days, back porch sitting, reading days. So before I settle down, I thought I would share some of the books, that have been my friends for June.

 The Fitzgerald duo are near and dear to my heart. Scott and Zelda, are like relatives to me. Scott, because he married Zelda. Miss "Z" because she was born in the south. That Alabama girl is surely related, so I read all books about my kin.

 I love writers, books about writers, and when you throw in the influence of the south, Iam in knee deep in hanging moss and humidity.

 So it is no surprise to me, that I picked, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler.

My Bill always asks me, as do others, what I am reading? When I told him about Zelda, he said, "You could write your own book about her."
I semi-smiled and said, "Why thank you, I think?"
I remind him, that it is all family research. "You know she is a relative?" repeating myself over and over!
"Yes, so you say!" he responds, knowing I know he is not listening to one word I have said!

 Back to my story, the book was delicious, but you know that. Who doesn't know about Zelda? Anyone?
 My daddy always said, " Never assume!" but I think the world reads like I do. Unbridled desire to learn everything! Non-fiction, fiction, you need to read about my Zelda.
 Here are some lines from the book, that may spark your reading fever.
  *If only people could travel as easily as words.
  * Nothing except luck protects you from catastrophe.
  * But Zelda, what wouldn't you give to go back to the beginning, to be those people again.
  * Look closer and you will see something extraordinary.
  *"You can't have peach preserves every day of your life!" Aunt Julia said that was the only thing keeping me sweet enough to evade the devil!!! (delicious)
  * My standards were based on good sense, not the logic of lemmings
  * Zelda Sayre of 6 Pleasant Avenue, she of the toe shoes and angel's wings. Livye said, " and devil's smile."
  *"I'm wiser than I am impetuous or improper, rest assured."
  * Trouble don't need an engraved invitation.
  * His father was old-fashioned, too, but Scott thought him benign, like an old pocket watch that keeps time and has style but isn't worth much.
  * "Ludlow once told me his nanny could cut his meat just by scowling at it.
  *Days longer than whole months crawled by
  *There would be too much everything and not enough anything, and then where would that leave us?
I will end on that line. Zelda and Scott sucked up life and spit it out, and if they had lived now, certainly would have been put on some good meds. Then no books would have been written, and no stories told.
It is a fine line with artists, alcohol, mental illness and the years you have it all.

T.S. Elliot wrote, If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

This is a tall story, a long month of June story, a must read story for all who read.

My Zelda, "Z", from Montgomery, dressed in her prettiest spring dress and finest floral perfume, met Scott and the story begins.

I love them both.