 Hi guys, I know this is a weird setup, but I am actually up in the North Georgia Mountains to film some stories for you guys, specifically one story. But while I was here, because you guys had such fun with my mother, I decided to get her to share some more story time with you all. But before we go any further, you know what to do, hit that subscribe button and give my mama a like. Welcome to S with Tarik Atlanta. My name is Bryce and today we're going to sit down with my mama for some more story time. We talked to y'all about another funny story that happened, not such a little girl. We have an organization, it's a national organization, it's called the Junior Service League. And young women would join this and we would do things to help the community. And one of the ways that we raised money to help the community was to have a Follies. So the Follies happened every two years and what the Follies is, it's like a variety show. So there would be a lot of dancing and a lot of singing and maybe some funny acts, but you know different people in the community would come together. We practice, practice, practice. It was just so much fun. It's a great way to meet people and of course I grew up dancing and I loved being on that stage and dancing. So I was in my element. I mean I just loved it. I was so happy to be there. So I practiced this dance with my partner who I cannot even remember who he was. But our costume was, it was like a one-piece swimsuit and a grass skirt around our waist that came down. So we're out there dancing. I'm just having the good old time and all of a sudden my grass skirt drops to the floor and I'm standing there on the stage in front of everybody. The audience lights on me with, I felt like I was naked. So I didn't know what to do. So I went and I ran off the stage in my bathing suit and left my skirt lying there on the floor with my partner. He didn't know what to do and he kind of looked at me and he kind of ran off the stage too. But when I moved back to Rome recently, like a couple of months ago, we were driving around and my husband said, do they still have the Follies in Rome? And I said, yeah, you know what, let me tell you a funny story about that. So I told him the story about what happened when my skirt fell off. And like 30 minutes later, we walked into a store and the owner of that store said, I was, hey, welcome back to Rome. She said, every time I think about you, I think about the Follies. So I not only did it leave an lasting impression on me, but I think I scarred a few people for life looking at me up on that stage, you know, my beautiful curvy body, half naked. I taught you about Miss Peggy's and where it was located across the street was the fairgrounds. And every year we had the county fair. Now in a small town, once a year the fair comes, there's rides, there's good fair food, there's, well, back in the day when I was a little girl, there were kind of hoochie-coochie shows too. And, you know, some of the men like to go in those, but that's no longer the case. But any hoot, but there was just all sorts of things to do at the county fair. They had animals, farm animals you can go see. They had pageant that going on, Miss Cousins Valley Fair and just a lot of fun stuff. So we look forward to it every year. So about the time I was in the middle school is when your parents would let you go with a group of people. And of course, you know, if you had a boyfriend, you would go with a group with your boyfriend. So I had a little boyfriend, I think I was in the seventh grade. And so we met at the fair and we were, I'm, listen, I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to the fair. I never have light to ride the rides. I get real nervous. So we were with a bunch of people and, you know, there was a ride called the zipper. And it went up and down and all around. And, you know, you would go upside down and twirl and everybody wanted to go, let's go ride the zipper. Well, I didn't want to ride the zipper. And my boyfriend at the time didn't want to ride the zipper. And so we said, no, we weren't going to ride the zipper. Well, you know, the boys gave us or his friends gave him so much grief about it that we said, okay, we'll ride it. Well, sure enough, we'll ride the zipper and we get stuck upside down at the top. And I mean, I was scared to death, but my boyfriend was terrified. And all I could hear and say was, dear Lord, if you get me off this ride alive, I promise I'll never be mean to my mother again. I laughed so hard. Well, we got off that ride. Okay. I wonder if you can't just promise. Speaking of middle school, well, back in the day, I will have to say it was in the 60s, late 60s for me, but we dated. I mean, not like kids, even my kids didn't really date. They'd go out in groups or whatnot. But even in the middle school, there was a boy's school, Darlington in a girl's school, Thornwood, a private school in Rome. And at Darlington, once the boys had the sixth grade, once a year they had a bingo night. I don't know if it was just sixth grade or if it anyway, but in the sixth grade, yeah, it was the whole middle school. And it was a big deal. It was a big deal. It was a big deal for the girls to be invited. I mean, who invited you to the bingo? You know, that was a big deal. And if you didn't get invited, it was awful. But so here I was in the sixth grade, you know, nervous while I get invited to the bingo. And so the phone rang and, you know, I answered the phone and it was a friend of mine, a male friend of mine, and the sixth grade. And he said, Alice, this is so and so. He said, I just wanted to know if you would like to go to the bingo with me. And I said, at that time, you said, hold on, let me go ask my mama. So I held on. I went, mama, he's asked me to go to the bingo. Is that okay? And she said, yes, sure. So I came back and I said, yes, thank you. I'll be glad to get, you know, thank you for inviting me. Yes, I'll go with you to the bingo. Well, he was so nervous. He said, oh, good. He said, will you go with me next year in the next? I thought I was nervous, bless his heart. I said, well, you know what? You call me next year and we'll see. But I like to tease him about that to this day. Another weird thing about that I think about when my kids were in the sixth grade, there would be no way I would let them go on a date. But back in the day, what would happen is the boy's father would drive the car and the boy would walk and knock on the door and you know, hey, hey, and speak to your parents and then you would go and get in the car and you'd get in the back seat and the boy's father would drive you to the party and then they would come and pick you back up and bring you home. And so that was always a little bit awkward. But I can remember, maybe this might be a kind of a story to tell. But another time when I was in the seventh grade in one of those parties, girl boy parties we used to call them, you know, the dad came and picked me up and dropped me off at this party at another guy's house. And I walked in and on the wall, he had these signs, I guess, to decorate for the party. And one of the signs was James Bond is a virgin. Well, everybody at that party laughed. They thought that was so funny. Well, I had no clue what that meant. I had never heard that word before. So you know what, I think my mother dropped me off at that party now that I can remember. So she picks me back up and we're driving home. And I said, Mom, I said, well, there was a sign at this party and I didn't understand it and everybody laughed. And I said, I laughed too, but I felt so stupid because I didn't know what it meant. It said James Bond is a virgin. Well, my mother just burst out laughing. She's laughing her head off all the way home, but she won't tell me what it means. She said, when we get home, you know, we'll find out what that means. So I'm driving home, we get home. She wasn't going to tell me what that meant. She got out the dictionary or the encyclopedia or something. And she said, look it up. Leave y'all with one more story. I'm going to rewind and go back to my childhood. They say that memories that you have are there, you get these memories because of you're either really excited about something or something traumatic or scary. Well, this is a story that I remember because it scared me to death. So when we were little, my grandparents had a beach house at Garden City Beach, South Carolina, which was near Polly's Island. We've talked about that before, but we'd go there every summer and I loved it. I just love always being at the beach and my grandfather would take us out and ride the waves with us and just always switch such great memories. But we were looking for sharks' teeth or shells or something and I saw a starfish there on the sand. And so I picked the starfish up and I put it in my hand to show everybody. Look, I found a starfish and well, I couldn't get it off. You know, the little bottoms of the starfish have that little suction cups on them almost like, well, I couldn't get the starfish. We pulled and pulled and nobody could get the starfish off. So I was like five in kindergarten. So I ran up to the beach house and we didn't know what to do. So my mother went and got a bottle of Clorox and she poured it on top of the starfish on top of my hand and that was the only way that I could get the starfish off my hand. So whenever I see people like posting pictures of a starfish or when I see one, I'm like, don't touch it. So thank you all for listening to some of my stories. I love reminiscing. I try to think of some more funny ones to tell but later today you're going to get to meet one of my childhood friends, Beth. She was Beth Hoyt when I knew her. She's now Beth Paulson and she looked forward to introducing her and I'll tell the story of how we met when I introduced her to you but thanks again.