More BB Stories

Not surprisingly, BB is on my mind today. I've been thinking about some of my favorite BB anecdotes.

BB and the Bobbie Jonsers

The apartment BB lived in for a while was near Bob Jones University, one of the most conservative religious colleges in the country (lately of fame after the 2000 and 2004 election scandals). Part of the required curriculum there is that students have to spend a certain time going door-to-door witnessing to members of the community. This was a constant source of irritation and offense to BB, who believed that religion should be private. She started experimenting with ways to get them to leave her alone. She told one young man that she had been a dance hall girl who had "lain with men", smoked, and drank whiskey; and that it was too late to save her soul. This had rather the opposite of the intended effect, as the guy re-doubled his efforts to convince her that it was never too late. She eventually just stopped answering the door, although she did tell the occasional one who caught her that she was a devil worshipper. This usually got rid of them, although she did leave a few of the more determined still talking as she left in her car.

BB and the geraniums

When BB was in college, they had a very strict dorm mother who believed they should be training to be young ladies. BB and her roommate and best friend Doris (who became her lifelong friend, and was wonderful to me) had limited tolerance for that. Part of their rebellion was that they had an old bedpan in their dorm room they planted geraniums in. On sunny days, the bedpan was put out on the window sill so the flowers could take some sun. The dorm mother hated this bedpan being on the out where people could see it, much less with flowers in it! She thought it was undignified, and certainly unladylike. Any time she saw the bedpan, she would try to count the windows to see which room it was in. But as she headed down the hall, anyone watching would send a signal to BB or Doris, and they woulds stash the bedpan in the closet before the dorm mother got to their room. She never found it. Years later, BB took the back tank of a toilet and made a planter out of it, in which she proudly grew lush geraniums on the front stoop of her apartment.

BB and Marilyn Monroe

For a while my grandfather Poppy raced sulky horses. They often socialized with very wealthy people at the track. BB confessed to me that she was at a party with Marilyn Monroe once. I asked her if she had gotten an autograph "Oh no dear," she said "it simply wasn't done. But I always felt kind of sorry for her. She seemed such a sad little thing."

BB in the hospital

During one of the times BB was in the hospital, I went to visit her, and we had a long talk. We talked about the paths all of our lives had taken, and focused on my sister Lisa, at that time in the midst of a failing marriage, but still hanging on. I was talking about how I had tried to warn her before she married this man that I saw trouble ahead, but then I added that (since I am gay) I guess others would have chosen a different partner for me. BB looked me in the eye and say “I wouldn’t change a thing about you. Do you hear me? You are a fine young man.” BB is the one of only two people in the family who has said anything like that to me. Most of them tolerate me, but would change me if they could.