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The LADIES OF THE ORDER OF THE MEMPHIS EASTERN STAR

PSALM 4:2   How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?  How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?

Holly, Amanda, Grace and Eunice have been best friends since they were in Mrs. Wilson’s pre-school in Grant Parish.  They did everything together and kept no secrets from each other.  Their bonds ran deep; loyalty was their motto.  They grew up in the fifties and life was tranquil.  It was a time of freedom where everyone knew his or her neighbor, doors left unlocked.  Children rode bicycles with abandon anywhere in town.  People took care of each other.  Neighbors cared.

This was the life these four girls enjoyed.  There were trees to climb, horses to ride, creeks to explore, secret places to hide under the canopy of pines where they would sit for hours telling secrets or gossip about the boys or nosy old busy body “redneck” neighbors.  They had the pure freedom to be girls, Southern girls, “raised properly”, if you talked with their mamas.  They were raised to care for each other. 

Holly is not as sharp as the rest of her peers due to an accident at birth, her intellect not progressing past the first grade but that doesn’t matter to the girls.  It didn’t matter then and it just doesn’t matter now.  They are friends and their friendship knows no boundaries or has room for prejudice.

When the girls turned thirteen they spent forever locked in Amanda’s room with the music of rock and roll bouncing off the walls from the record player as they practiced the jitterbug.  The fear of boys asking them to dance and being all left feet was forever on their minds.  They would be horrified not being prepared.  The girls listened to all the performers of the day but Elvis was their preferred musician.  He was young and gorgeous, they were young and madly in love with the King.

In the tenth grade they became Rainbow Girls making sure that Holly was included because it would have been cruel otherwise.  “Friendship is not cruel,” they would tell others.  The rituals appealed to them and were easy for Holly to follow since she thrived on repetition.  And the dances, oh, the dances were divine.  They learned all the latest.  Life was full of boys and music and music and boys and ELVIS, mostly ELVIS.  They had parties for any occasion, always with Elvis themes, especially on their birthdays.  There were Elvis games like Pin the Guitar on Elvis, Elvis music, Elvis impersonators, Elvis decorated cakes, Elvis anything.  Their parents went along even though they feared this new rock and roll and especially this Pied Piper called Elvis.  “He is dangerous” was the topic of conversation behind locked bedroom doors.  Yet they went along afraid of what this music was doing to their girls.  They went along afraid of losing their girls not realizing it was too late because the King had already taken over their children’s very souls.

The girls, living together now, are middle aged and divorced  (the men could not compete with the King, not even the best of them).  Holly never married.  The girls are members of the Eastern Star and still carry a love for Elvis.  Their house is filled with Elvis scarves, Elvis albums, photos of them being kissed by Elvis, or of places where he might have stood.  They have throws, comforters, decanters, and Elvis plates to eat on Elvis placemats with Elvis glasses.  There is even a fat Elvis cookie jar from his later.  Holly has painted a shirtless Elvis on the bathroom wall with his legs in that seductive pose.  Bless their little hearts.   They are on a life-long pilgrimage.

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