Tracking Happiness: Chapter 21
(After a brief hiatus while my website was updated, we are back rolling on down the line with the deep background on TRACKING HAPPINESS: A SOUTHERN CHICKEN ADVENTURE)
This is CHAPTER 21 in our series offering gossip, novel backstory, and personal confessions about TRACKING HAPPINESS: A SOUTHERN CHICKEN ADVENTURE. We’re working our way through a novel here. If you’re just now discovering us, you can jump in now or go back to the first entry and catch up. If you jump in now, I can’t promise you it won’t be confusing, but it might be interesting too.
Ok. Last we left off: Lucinda’s grandmother Pooh had made a comment at the Denver train station that set Lucinda’s mind thinking there might be history between her mother and Big Doodle. Also, Big Doodle joined them on the train.
This chapter contains a reference to harp-playing Elvi called the Heavenly Graceland Elvi. I made that up. The problem is, if I looked hard enough, there probably is a real band of harp-playing Elvi who call themselves the Heavenly Graceland Elvi. There are virtually no configurations of Elvis that haven’t already been thought up by someone. Long ago, I was a groupie for Dread Zepplin, a reggae playing Led Zeppelin knock-off band led by Tortelvis. I also saw Elvis Herselvis perform and El Vez, “the caped defender of truth, justice, and the Mexican-American way.” This was during a phase when I was collecting performances of every iteration of Elvis impersonator I could find, which, by the way, professional impersonators want to be called tribute artists. It’s worth a trip to the Notes Section for the El Vez website where you can see El Vez doing a Sam the Sham and the Pharos tribute.
The incident in the chapter where a shaved Yorki is mistaken for a squirrel is true. Also the dog having to go on a carrot diet: true. On the other hand, not one attribute that I’ve given to Lucinda’s mother is true about my mom. My own mother never tried to tamp down my enthusiasm or make me be a better “young lady” or worry-wart me to death. My mother is not Rita Rae Watkins. I feel the need to say that because whenever a woman writes about a mother everyone thinks it’s her mother. It’s not. It’s Lucinda’s mother.
Okay. I think that’s enough preliminary information. Now go read Chapter 21 of TRACKING HAPPINESS: A SOUTHERN CHICKEN ADVENTURE.
Helpful Train Hint: There are still things called “privately-owned rail cars.” Who knew? These private cars can be attached to the train. So many people own their own rail cars, there’s a national association. It does appear, however, that the use of these cars is somewhat up in the air. It might be derailed, I’m saying. Just as I was about to develop new squad goals . . . .
Footnotes:
Dread Zepplin, El Vez, Elvis Herselvis, Elvis impersonators, Tortelvis, Tracking Happiness, Tracking Happiness: A Southern Chicken Adventure, train trip