lois

"It's The Rock Steady Boogie..
Bahoo Bahoo Bahooba."

Donnis, Lois, &"Old White"

There is an old tale told of the existence of a doppleganger

which is suppose to be another "you", roaming around

somewhere in the world. I guess one could assume a

"split apart at birth" occurs. Well if there is aany truth to
this tale then my "doppleganger" was Lois Marie Davison,
also known as "Runt" and "Loismree", all one word. But my
doppleganger wasn't roaming around in the world somewhere,
she was as much a part of my daily life as I was. In truth it
was my "first cousin", but different than cousins of today.
The Cousin Connection has lost some of it's properties along
the way. It's just not the same as I remember, but then Lois
wasn't like anyone I remember. What she did, I did. What
she knew, I knew. It seems every dream, idea, or mission

accomplished was a joint effort.

THIS WAS OF COURSE, AFTER BUBBA HAD SHED

HIS SKIN OF ME.

"The Pecking Order/Generic Boob Job"

She was older than me, and this had it's perks and privileges.
It was never questioned or challenged. It was the undisputed
"Pecking Order." If we were going to see-saw, she got her
choice of the end of the plank. If we were jumping rope, she
was first jumper, and Juanita , her younger sister and I held
the rope. This isn't to say we didn't sometimes hold that rope
as "high" as we could in futile attempts to make her "miss." If
we played school, she was the teacher. I believed she knew
everything. She was the "pipeline" between the grownups,
the almost grownups, and us, who really were grownup, but
it just hadn't come to anyones attention yet. And she passed
all this wonderful, juicy knowledge on to me. It seemed as
tho we shared every aspect of our existence. If there was
to be a day, there was to be a "Lois and me."

The Pecking Order
Front left to right: Juanita, Donnis. Lois Center: Roy, Sonny, Willie
Back: Wanda(Kee-Kee) and Helen

I remember playhouses etched out in the dirt and acting
out our life's plan with the man of our dreams. Cowboys were
the rage then, and we had such hunks as Roy Rogers, Tom Mix,
Rex Allen, and of course the dark eyed mysterious man with
a whip called "Las LaRue." He was my choice of partners,
but this was held secret, because Lois got to pick first.
These little episodes of discovery and acting out life paled in
comparison to "generic Boob Job", which was soon to follow.
Oh we were unstoppable!

I haven't the faintest notion what possessed us to determine
that we should enhance our anatomy on that day. Perhaps we
had waited so long for this wonderful thing to happen,
this boob thing, and maybe Mother Nature needed some help.
And oh we would be so generously endowed!! All in one day.
Our "implants" were carefully chosen plums picked and
strategically placed under our blouses, and we were off to
Omega Baptist Church, with everything in tow.
Church was a big part of our lives in those days. I can still
see Mrs. Blanche Manning, or rather her backside, as it eased
over the piano stool where she pounded out old hymns.
And I remember her dresses. They were starched and ironed
so neat, they could have come to church without her.
Our grand scheme of things was to make our grand entrance
with all this" new development" in place, becoming the envy of every
young girl, and the wanton desire of every young boy present..
Upon reflection, neither of us were mentally retarded, thaT
we knew of, we had no outward physical disabilities,
and didn't uncontrollably drool on ourselves.

But this must surely have been a sign of minimal brain damage.

HOW could we believe we could get past her Mother
, Aunt Ethel Mae, and convince anyone we had suddenly and
miraculously evolved from "The Young and The Breastless"?
And all in one day?
It's a hard fact to face, but I think I was the most severely

brain damaged, because I thought the only reason anyone knew

they were fake was because one of mine fell out!

And it seemed to roll and roll forever before finally stopping.
The "switching" we got from Aunt Ethel Mae
drew to an end our "coming out" planned for the Church Service.
And to add insult to injury she gave us a switching
with a switch from the same tree from which
OUR HOOTERS had come.

And while on the subject of Aunt Ethel Mae...all of Lois's

feisty and energetic nature I feel sure came from Aunt Ethel Mae.
She had a "perpetual motion" personality which drew you to her.
Call it gift of gab, conversation magic, gossip, whatever, whenever
she was around, there was movement. There was life. She and
Aunt Jewel both possessed the same "show of affection" personality.
If you were coming to see them, the'd run half way down the lane
to meet you. Here is a story told so well by Aunt Lillian, the

Great Teller of Stories..on Other People.
"Rumor somehow mistakenly got out that Grandpa had died,
when in fact he was very much alive and hard at work.

But Aunt Ethel Mae heard this terrible news in town and came
running down the lane to Grandpa's house, believing her daddy

to be dead and laying in state.
"Where's my daddy?" she cried, overwhelmed with grief.
"Where's my daddy?"

Now Grandma had not heard the rumor, and was shocked at

Aunt Ethel Mae's wailing, and simply yelled, "Well good grief, he's down in the potato bin!"

A distraught Aunt Ethel Mae, still believing her daddy to be
dead cried, "Oh Lord, what have yall got him in there for?"

To know her was to simply be around her. There were no

hidden emotions with her. If she was happy she laughed out loud.

If she was sad she cried the same way.
If she loved you , you knew it...and I did.
Clutching these traits handed down by her Mother,
Lois was not just a dreamer. She was a planner!

"...and we dreamed of cities where we would live one day,
But did you even notice, when I went away?"

This girl at this very early age had her unborn children named.
She was the most energetic, entertaining, imaginative,
curious/nosy, bossiest, sharp tongued mass of human matter
ever conceived. SHE WAS A COMMITTEE OF ONE.

Lois and Willie

But for all that Lois was, her twin brother, Willie was not.
To me, there was no stopping Lois, while Willie didn't seem to

want to bother with even getting started. Willie could have gone

thru life oblivious to a C or D average, and an open fly, while

sister Lois, would have straight A"s and a good start on an ulcer.

But it seemed without her, Willie would just cease to be.

And she loved him. She loved him with a deep forever lasting love

that carried them all thru childhood, adulthood, and now
rests with Willie, and lives on in Lois's heart.
We miss you Widdlelee.

Lois had the ability to make things happen, while I was

still following along, content with letting things happen.
With little effort at all
she could convince me to faithfully follow her,
when she would try to lose me in the woods.
Of course not "literally" lose me, but looking back I feel we
probably did try to lose her little sister Juanita, also known as
Marthy, Wuneeter, and one more tag, better left unsaid.
It was an on going task trying to hide from Nita, we would
drag a quilt into tall grass,
so we could look at "True Story" magazines. If we
couldn't successfully sneak one from the house,
Lois could almost recite the stories. Verbatim.
I had some questions about these stories!
In all the forbidden (to us) stories, which she could manage
to smuggle out and read, or commit to memory, we were always
led up to wild passion and swept away on a tide of desire right
up to where the waves came crashing to the shore!

Always the waves crashing! " Where did the waves come from? "

I wondered.
And then...always, without fail, it would say..."later I cried."
Why did they cry? From the waves hitting them?

I don't remember her explanation for this, or if I even dared to ask,

I just figured it was gonna take more than water and waves to make me cry!

And The Rock Steady Boogie.....
It was in our "True Story" hideout where she would do

something that just messed with my mind. There was a little "snippit"

of a song that she use to sing, just one or two lines,
..."it's the rock steady boogie..Bahoo Bahoo Bahooba.

Now this was her interpretation, and she had mastered it so well.
When she sang this one little line, she would pucker her mouth just so,
and get a pitch to her voice, that I felt, only those truly blessed with
talent could do. But I was not truly blessed, but I must have tried
feverishly, because that one little line and Lois's presentation of it

is so clear in my memory. For the most part, a sound, a phrase,

a smell can take me all the way back. Sounds of "Kick The Can",

"Red Rover," "Annie Over", "Giant" and some other game where
you got slung around until you were dizzy and then had to play
like you were a statue, come to mind.
BUT WHAT IN BLAZES WAS ROCK STEADY BOOGIE?

WHAT DID IT MEAN? Could it really have been Rock City Boogie?
Could Lois have possibly had the words wrong? Oh perish the thought.

Be still my vicious heart! Not possible. The pipeline couldn't have heard
it wrong on the radio!

For Lois and me our relationship as we knew it would soon come to a close.

For awhile when I no longer spent summers with my Grandparents,

she would come to the city and visit me. But things were different now.
She had been my playmate, my doppleganger, the sister I had not had at the time.

She still had the tenacity for asking questions, getting all the details.
Other peoples lives intrigued her. She was still taking small bites
of life and I seemed to be trying to swallow it all at one time.
As we got older

I felt she thought the "dream come true" road was past Indian Switch
and out of Chicot County, and that I got to travel that road first.

And that was against the natural order of things.
Against the rules governing "The Pecking Order."

The Pecking Order Grows Up

"You know come to think of it, I seem to remember

she pronounced it "Rock Stiddy Boogie" rather than Rock Steady. Well what a hoot! Busted! Lois may have been wrong!

I may have found her out!!
I think I'll email her right now!
You can bet she's in a Chat Room."

HOME
Back To FRONT PORCH
Back To INDEX