Leaving Cold Sassy (9780547527291) (18 page)
Read Leaving Cold Sassy (9780547527291) Online
Authors: Olive Ann Burns
“The other one I loved was Sister Maggie. She and Brother Hen had been married for nine or ten years, with no children. So they finally adopted a premature baby boy whose mother died in childbirth. Sister Maggie had a heart big enough for all the orphans of the world.”
***
“When I was ten an awful thing happened in the family. Violet was having a baby and wasn't married. Sister Maggie's husband came down and
made
the boy marry her. The next morning Sister Maggie found me crying in the privy and asked me if I'd like to come live with them in Mitchellville. âThe school is so much better,' she said. âYou want to be a teacher, it matters to go to a good school.'
“I wiped my eyes and asked, âAt the new school, will you say my name is Sanna? Not Sanna Maria?'
“âYes, if you want to be just Sanna.'
“âWill you ask Mama can I go? She's got Tattie. She loves Tattie better'n me.'
“âI already did. Come on, precious, let's go get up your things.'
“âBut I don't want to leave Papa. I help him put on his shirt and shoes and socks.'
“âYou'll come home for Christmas and summer vacation.'
“âI hate the farm. It'd be so nice to be in town and have a bathroom and go to parties. It's awful here. One thing I know, I ain't go'n marry no farmer. I wouldn't have to mind Zinnie anymore?'
“âOnly when you're home.'
“Even now that I'm grown, I've thought bitterly and often that Mama certainly never had spoiled me. The Christmas before I left home to go live at Sister Maggie's house, Mama gave Tattie a little gold ring with a tiny diamond in it, a real âsho-nuff' diamond. Her present to me was a dollar bill, not even wrapped up. She just took it out of her apron pocket and said, âHere.'
“Mama didn't come to my graduation from Mitchellville High School. She didn't come to my college graduation, either, though I went out home and begged her to. âSister Maggie said tell you she'll make you a new dress to wear, Mama, and buy you a hat and shoes to go with it.'
“Mama's expression didn't change. âY'all don't need me,' she said, then leaned forward in her rocking chair and spat into the fireplace.
“I hated that Mama dipped snuff.”
This photograph, taken in front of Olive Ann's great-grandfather's store, circa 1900, provides a glimpse of the real people behind the characters in
Cold Sassy Tree.
Grandpa Power (Grandpa Blakeslee), who owned the store, is al the top left. A young Arnold Burns (Will Tweedy) stands in front of him, next to his father (Hoyt Tweedy).
Below left:
Olive Ann's father, William Arnold Burns, just before his discharge from the army in 1918,
Below right:
RubyCelestia Highi, Olive Ann's mother, at Shorter College in Rome, Georgia, circa 1916.
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Jean, Olive Ann, and Margaret Burns, Easier 1944
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Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine.
“I had absolutely no confidence in myself,” Olive Ann said. “It took me two or three weeks to write a simple story.”
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Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine.
Olive Ann said, “It took me and Andy almost as long to fall in loveâeight years of working togetherâas it took me to write the book.”