This is a photograph of my mother, Myrna Randolph. She was a chorus dancer at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, in Chicago Illinois, 1951.
When the Woody Herman Band played there, she met my father, trombonist Herb Randel. It must have been love at first site because two weeks later, they were engaged to be married.
The characters in The Hat are an amalgam of history, fantasy, and wishful thinking. One of the reasons I love to write is because it's possible to reinvent events and people. Re-imagining my parent's life together as a love story brings peace to a tumultuous relationship.
While my mother was born in Florida, she never had a southern accent. Neither did her mother, my grandmother, who dragged Mom back and forth from Florida to Maine every summer for years, until one year, when Mom was 14, they just didn't go back. She never got to say goodbye to her father, her friends, or gather any of her things. I don't think my mother ever recovered from this event. Nevertheless, there was always a southern sensibility on my mother's side of our family. From this inkling, I have re-imagined my mother as a southern belle, madly in love with her husband, accepting of his drinking, and capable of glamorizing their relationship until the end.
"ROSE: Smiling is a southern woman's first line of defense. Smiling disarms, charms, distracts, deflects, masks. Very versatile. Quick wit is also useful, but that requires intelligence."
When the Woody Herman Band played there, she met my father, trombonist Herb Randel. It must have been love at first site because two weeks later, they were engaged to be married.
The characters in The Hat are an amalgam of history, fantasy, and wishful thinking. One of the reasons I love to write is because it's possible to reinvent events and people. Re-imagining my parent's life together as a love story brings peace to a tumultuous relationship.
While my mother was born in Florida, she never had a southern accent. Neither did her mother, my grandmother, who dragged Mom back and forth from Florida to Maine every summer for years, until one year, when Mom was 14, they just didn't go back. She never got to say goodbye to her father, her friends, or gather any of her things. I don't think my mother ever recovered from this event. Nevertheless, there was always a southern sensibility on my mother's side of our family. From this inkling, I have re-imagined my mother as a southern belle, madly in love with her husband, accepting of his drinking, and capable of glamorizing their relationship until the end.
"ROSE: Smiling is a southern woman's first line of defense. Smiling disarms, charms, distracts, deflects, masks. Very versatile. Quick wit is also useful, but that requires intelligence."
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