Good Read: “A Christmas Memory” by Truman Capote

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote  

Review by Kathy Friesen

One of the stories I most enjoy reading during the holidays is A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote. In this memoir he is a young child. He has been sent to live with distant cousins, Mr. B. and his sisters, all spinsters, who have no sense of a child’s needs. Also living there is his “friend,” a “childlike” character in her 60’s. One morning she awakens and says, “this is the day for making fruitcake, Buddy. I knew it before I got out of bed.”

They fetch an old baby buggy and go to the woods to gather windfall pecans. They return with a buggy full three hours later and set to hulling the pecans. Sitting in front of the fireside, it takes all evening to shell a bowl full of pecans. Friend won’t let Buddy taste a one, because they have 30 cakes to make this year.

Before bedtime they discuss the ingredients they will have to buy tomorrow, Buddy’s favorite part of the process. They must buy cherries and citron, ginger and vanilla, canned Hawaiian pineapple, raisins, walnuts, flour, butter, eggs, spices, flavorings…and whiskey. But, what about money? Neither has any, except for a skinflint dime they occasionally receive from the persons in their house for chores; and any sums they can earn from rummage sales, jams and jellies and gathering up funeral flowers. Once they have a freak show in the back yard with a three-legged chicken. One way or another they manage to save enough money for 30 fruitcakes.

Buddy and Friend keep their “Fruitcake Fund” in an old beaded purse, under a loose floor board under “Friend’s” bed. They only get the treasure out once a week to make a deposit or to take out a dime for Buddy to go to the picture-show on Saturday. Friend has never been to a picture-show and doesn’t want to go. She would rather have Buddy tell her the story, so she can imagine it better in her mind. Friend’s only vice is to dip snuff secretly once in a while.

Getting the groceries is an easy task compared to buying the illegal whiskey from, Mr. Haha Jones, an Indian, who runs a certain establishment. Filled with fear, they knock on the back door, hoping the Mrs. will wait on them, but it is Mr. Haha himself. He is a giant; he has scars, he doesn’t smile,” What do ya’ want with Mr. Haha?

“Please sir, we’d like a quart of your finest whiskey,” whispers Friend.

He laughs, “Which one of you is a drinkin’ man?”

“It’s for making fruitcake, Mr. Haha, for cooking.”

He mutters, “What a waste of good whiskey!” and disappears into the cafe. He soon returns with an unlabeled bottle of daisy yellow, in an unmarked liquor              bottle and says, “Two dollars.”

Buddy and Friend count out their dimes, nickels and pennies for him. He jangles the coins in his hand and drops the money back into the purse. “Tell, you what, just send me one a them fruitcakes instead.”

They spend four days, mixing their ingredients, baking their cakes and have 31 cakes set on the window sills to cool. They spend most of their money sending their fruitcakes all over the country to people who have touched their lives in some way.

Then they spend their days making Christmas decorations for their tree and gifts for each other. They are both delighted with their paper kites and spend Christmas Day outside flying their kites. It is the last Christmas they will spend together. “Life separated us. Those who Know Best decide that I belong in a military school….” says Mr. Capote.

This delightful story of Mr. Capote’s childhood has been made into a movie. It is readily available for about $10.