My friend Marsha sent me a note this morning suggesting that we organize a Deluded Diva group similar to the Red Hatters or Sweet Potato Queens.

She wrote: “I am absolutely POSITIVE that you are not the only deluded diva around; my guess is that there are millions. Here’s a whole new project for you– you could be the first of the “Deluded Divas” movement. No longer Purple Hats and Sweet Potato Queens. Now it’s the ‘Deluded Divas.’ Sounds interesting to me.” (The lady pictured above is a candidate for our Woman of the Year.)

Someone suggested we dress in outdated, once tasteful fashions of the past. I nixed that. I think we should wear nothing but baggy sweats – preferably smeared with chocolate and/or peanut butter.

In response to the story titled “Romancing the Walmart Woman” last week, Annie wrote:

“You gave me a real chuckle tonight when I finally settled down with the paper. I’m with you on this one. I hope the politicos and pundits NEVER figure us out down here…..they might want to join us. Love your stuff. See you at Fred’s (I’ll be in the Poker Blue baseball cap).”

The above photo was made last year during the first annual Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival. Robbie Ward at the podium is the creator of the unique event.

This just in from Jenny in response to the story on the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival coming up in my town in October. Jenny always cracks me up and wakes up my memory with stories from the past:

“I grew up in Belmont, MS (Tishomingo County), Northeast corner of the state–God’s country!

Anyway, when I was in the 7th grade (and I’m 64 now), my Daddy bought the movie theater, and we kept it until I was a senior, with all the family working in it Mon.-Fri. nights and Sat. afternoons and Sat. nights. We even had what we called an Owl Show, which began at 10:30 on Sat. night. I remember the day that Daddy came to the school to talk to Mama, telling her that the theater was for sale and nobody was interested in buying it. He wanted to buy it because if we didn’t have it in Belmont, the kids would have nowhere to go. She agreed, and then……….

Daddy supervised and took up tickets (and knew how to do everything, even to running the projectors), Mama sold tickets, and my sister and I worked the concession stand–one of us sold popcorn, the other drinks and candy. I even “invented” a drink called the Elvis by simply mixing Coke, orange, and grape; and a lot of people would come and ask for an Elvis! I did my homework while sitting on the popcorn can after the movie started.

But, hey, I digress–I was going to tell you a Johnny Cash story. This theater had a stage in front of the screen; and sometimes on Sat. afternoons, local people would “play and sing” at the theater. This was in the days of Elvis’s and Johnny Cash’s beginnings. Johnny was friends with one of my good friend’s daddy (Shorty Ginn) there in Belmont. (My friend tells me that one of her daddy’s posters for his little band is in the Johnny Cash Museum.) Johnny called my Daddy one day and asked him if he could come and play at the theater. Daddy told him he could IF he sent him all the publicity posters, etc. Well, we never heard from Johnny, so we assumed he wasn’t coming.

One night we were visiting a sick friend, and someone called Daddy and told him that Johnny Cash was at the theater ready to play! Panic city! He had never called or sent any info! There was a basketball tournament going on at the gym, and one of the teams didn’t show; so Daddy went to the gym and had someone announce that Johnny Cash was at the theater. Would you believe, we wound up with a big crowd to see ol’ Johnny!”

P.S. Elvis died never knowing what he missed by not ever calling and asking to play at the Belmont Theater! But wait…….I forgot……the King is not dead, is he??!!”

(Editor’s note: Jenny, I want you to become a guest blogger on my site. You have such interesting stories to tell and you shouldn’t withhold all that humor from our readers!)

Paula contributed this little tidbit in response to my story on the magazine titled “Food & Family” – available free from Kraft:

“I get that magazine, too. I love it. Such wonderful pictures and easy recipes. I love to search for recipes on line. That site I sent you is great, and so versatile. I also like to go to the Food Network link www.foodnetwork.com. You get all the recipes from the TV shows. I love Paula Deen. My husband says I look like her. I say, if I had all the wigs, and make-up artists available, maybe, but I don’t think so. Ha! We went down to Tunica and ate at her restaurant. I wasn’t that impressed. My husband says it wasn’t as good as my cooking. I guess he knows when to say the right thing, huh? I cook like that, so it was like home cooking to me.”

Is this Paula Sisco or Paula Deen? NO, I think it’s Ruthie – my best bud and a charter member of the Deluded Divas..she’s also a dead ringer for the cookster.