My grandmother Nola was a total Ya-Ya when she was younger. When I read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, I could see her right there on the page, drinking Dixie beer and dirty martinis, laughing and playing Boure (Boo-Ray). I could hear her talking to me with Vivi’s words.

She was kind-hearted and fun, toxic and completely unpredictable when she drank, which was pretty much all the time. The Ya-Yas weren’t from New Orleans like my grandmother was, but they were still infused with that essence of Louisiana.

One of my favorite sayings from Rebecca Wells’s book was, “that’s so junialeeg,” especially since my other grandmother, who was much more distant and cold, was actually in the Junior League. Nola was not.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 3:30 pm and is filed under US and Canada, meanderings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.