The Peach Pilgrimage - Day 2, Part 2

This post is part of an ongoing tale of my trip back home to Mississippi to visit my family. To start the story at the beginning, begin reading from October 30, 2007.

Lisa was counting on seeing my mom, Miss Virginia, when we were together in Mississippi and I knew Mama was wanting to see her and Michele again and meet Robin, A and S again. So we loaded up in the cars once again and headed over to The Plantation, the care facility where my mother lives.

At the time of the last Peach Pilgrimage Mama lived in an apartment but now she has just one large room that has her bed, her dresser, a few tables and a couple chairs. When we came in I commented that it was a shame she didn't have her couch anymore and Mama replied "Yeah, but if you have a couch then everyone wants to come visit and they want to stay and you can't get rid of them.". Thanks for the welcome, Miss Virginia!

It's that sort of thing I hear and think "It's the Alzheimer's talking.".

Seating was scrounged up but Lisa insisted on sitting on the floor next to Mama. She didn't want to miss a bit of anything and wanted to be as close to Miss Virginia as practical. We told Mama was we'd been up to in the past 24 hours and she was appropriately impressed and happy that we'd been having a good time together. Mama knows that when I'm in Germany it's hard for me to have girlfriend time so she was thrilled that I could be with my friends for a weekend.

The conversation continued and casually I said "Hey Mama, do y'all still play bingo? You haven't mentioned anything about it.".

Mistake.

"Oh I used to play but you know some of these folks cheat. They'll call out five numbers and one of 'em will yell out "BINGO!". You know that can't be. That would mean they got every number drawn! That can't be! So I said to Edgie (who is the lady living in the room across from Mama's and who is actually rather close with Mama) 'Edgie! You're cheating! Let me see your card!' and she said to me "You just mind your own business! I can tend to my own card!'".

"Hmmm...I reckon the number caller doesn't check the cards when someone yells bingo, huh?"

"No...they can't do that. You know some of these folks don't know any better 'cause they've got Alzheimer's."

Right, Mama. Check, please!

The evening shift nurse came by not too long afterwards to hand out evening medications so I figured it was probably time for us to be heading on. As we were saying our goodbyes somehow Britney Spears got mentioned and Mama immediately piped up "Oh don't mention that hussy to me! I don't have any use for any woman who doesn't wear panties!".

I suppose in Miss Virginia's world if you go commando while cheating at Bingo you'll be given the rickety metal chair by the kitchen to sit in as you roast in Hell.

And as expected, the ladies loved Miss Virginia. You gotta admit, she's quotable.

Since we weren't 100% sure we had enough junk to sustain us all evening, a trip to Walmart was in order. We bought lipstick. We bought crackers. We bought cheese. We bought spray on cheese. We bought a peach scented candle. T-shirts and ball caps supporting local high school teams were bought. And since I love those crazy pink SnoBalls snack cakes, Lisa bought a box of twelve.

"Lisa! That's too many! Twelve is too many!"

"But you love them. Trust me, twelve won't be too many."

I shouldn't have doubted Lisa. If there's one thing she knows, it's what sort of stuff you really need for a girls weekend and the SnoBalls weren't in any danger of going to waste.

We left Walmart in search of some food that wasn't pork oriented and included some vegetables and as we sat in the restaurant watching UVa play Maryland on TV, getting updates from the LSU game from Michele's brother-in-law via text message I talked to Darling Mollie on the phone and got from her the story of how she met Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe and how he smiled at her. Mollie's had a crush on Nikki Sixx for about twenty years so this story was a treat for me to hear.

We returned to the hotel and got settled in for the evening but not before Michele had to press the alarm bell in the elevator. A lot. I finally had to slap her hand and call her a shit ass for doing it and we all just howled with laughter. I told you - Michele is the best sport in the world.

Snacks were dug out of bags, cheese was sprayed on crackers, SnoBalls were cherished (and by Robin, picked on for being fake, no-name SnoBalls) and I was given by Lisa a pedicure of epic proportions. Feet soaked in fragrant, warm water, washed, massaged, toenails trimmed and filed and when it came time to slough off the rough skin, Lisa became disappointed.

"You don't have any callouses."

"Well...I wear shoes all the time. I don't go barefoot anymore. It creeps me out to walk barefoot on dirty floors and with the dog my floors are bound to be dirty."

"I wear shoes all the time too but I have callouses. You don't."

"You sound disappointed."

"I am."

She still gave me a polish job that was (and still is...three weeks later and this polish isn't even chipped or rubbed off!) perfect. And it's peach colored.

I can't even describe how lovely that evening was. Being with good friends, eating complete crap and not caring it was complete crap, having my feet massaged and pampered, talking and laughing and feeling completely at ease. I hope y'all have times like these. An evening like this makes up for a lot of hard days when everything goes wrong. It's like having new life breathed into you.

Tomorrow: The Pilgrimage ends but not before fried bologna is served, I'm cheated out of grits and Sam meets (and charms) the Pilgrims.