Partners in Crime

Life in the dusty Mississippi town was boring for “town kids” because we didn’t have cows to milk or chickens to feed. Soon after moving there, I formed a lifelong bond with another rebel whose parents were just as happy for Simone to get out of their hair as my mother was with me.

So little changed in those long days and there was always a ripple of excitement when the dry goods store, Allens, changed the seasonal displays in their tiny plate glass window. We would walk to the little cluster of shops and gaze longingly at what was there and then go in to look at the new shoes, fabric and pattern books. Never mind, neither one of us could sew. But our time in Home Ec is another story.

Next door to Allens’ was the movie house, run by the Floyd family and every Saturday night, there would be a still unknown movie for the whopping sum of a nickel. No money? Not a problem for us. We would snitch it from our mother’s purse. Innocently saying, “I have money for the movie, can I go?"We always sat at the front, trying to find a seat that wasn’t broken or the horsehair stuffing with springs sticking out. Giggling and sneaking peaks at those lucky enough to have a “date” in the back row, hoping to see some groping and kissing to report at school next week.

Unfortunately, there was always an intermission to drum up sales of fresh popcorn and cokes, every drink was called a Coke, you just asked “what kind,” but I digress. One Saturday night during this break, Simone and I had the bright idea to sneak into the Baptist church, which was just across the street… imagine our surprise when we discovered the baptistry full of water for services the next day! Muffled cries of “shhh” “stop” soon led to us being drenched in the defiled water. We made our hasty exit, walking home hiding in the shadows, praying fervently that the night air would dry us off before we got back.

In just a few short years, Simone was the proud owner of a learners’ permit, which gave us access to all of the little surrounding towns and on Sundays, God’s day of rest, her parents would wearily give in to her wheedling, and we were off looking for boys. Once, we did find some boys in another town and convinced them to meet us in the dark back rows of the movie house, unknown to our parents. But there are no secrets in small towns and soon the Floyd’s reported our clandestine dates to our parents. That ended that.

Finally, in about grade 10, we began to settle down and the townspeople and teachers no longer rolled their eyes and said: “Look out, here comes Susan and Simone.”