Truman Capote's Southern Years, 25th Anniversary Edition: Stories from a Monroeville Cousin

Chapter 3. Orange Beach

J Orange Beach Writing was always an obsession with me, quite simply something I had to do, and I don't understand exactly why this should have been true. It was as ifI were an oyster and somebody forced a grain of sand into my shell-a grain of sand that I didn't know was there and didn't particularly welcome. Then a pearl startedforming around the grain and it irritated me, made my angry, tortured me sometimes. But the oyster can't help becoming obsessed with the pearl. "An Interview with Truman Capote" McCall's, November 1967 Along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Orange Beach was a favorite vacation spot for the Faulk, Capote, and Carter families . When we were kids growing up in the early 1930s, our folks would load up the car with food, linens, and towels. We'd leave early in the morning for the four-hour drive across rough roads until we reached the beach, where we rented a cabin overnight. There wasn't any air-conditioning in those days. Gulf breezes blew in during the day, and at night we slept under a light blanket. There was something therapeutic about being at the Gulf, away from our regular farm routine. Daddy and Mother were struggling to make it through the Depression , and even Jenny Faulk's mercantile store saw some hard times. Joe and Lillie Mae would send Truman down to jenny's house as soon as his school was over for the summer. Later 66 rMl they would drive down from New York in joe's big black touring car with a steamer trunk strapped on the back. We looked forward to their visit, because this signaled a time of partying and family reunion. Although these were Prohibition times, Joe and Lillie Mae always brought plenty of liquor with them. The Capotes made no secret of their drinking when they came to jenny's house, even though Sheriff Farrish lived across the street two doors down. He knew they all drank-even Jenny. Lillie Mae seemed to have everything going for her in those days. She and Joe were very comfortable on joe's money and private investments, and she had acquired some, if not all, of the social status she thought she should have. Lillie Mae was a beautiful woman with lily-white skin, dark hair, and a figure that put Venus to shame. She probably would have done very well as an actress, because around the family she staged and acted out miniature scenes in order to display herself. For her centerpiece she used some action such as a dinner party, or an object she had bought for the house. Then she'd get so caught up in acting out her part that you felt yourself swept up in it, too. Truman modeled his behavior on hers, right down to the letter. He staged little scenes just like his mother. It was amusing to watch the two of them trying to upstage each other. On this trip Joe, Truman, and Lillie Mae (Joe called her Nina, which means "little girl"), Mother and Daddy, Jenny Faulk, Nelle, and I crawled into Joe's big car about daybreak on Saturday and headed for Orange Beach. We stopped at a little seafood restaurant somewhere near the coast and ate fresh raw oysters that were shucked as fast as we could get them down. We laughed, thinking we might find a pearl and sell it for lots of money. It was about noon when we arrived at the cabin, unloaded Orange Beach our food and clothes, then dressed for an afternoon of fun on the beach. All of us liked the water, but none of us could swim as well as Truman. He'd been swimming since he was barely toddling, mostly in the pool at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans, where he lived until he was three. Back then most country people didn't have special beach clothes or equipment. Jenny waded in a lightweight dress. Mother had a one-piece suit consisting of a short skirt over short pants, with a plain top that didn't dare expose any bosom. The males had cut-offpants, except for Joe and Truman , who wore bright red-and-blue swimming trunks and long-sleeved white beach coats. Nelle had little cut-off coveralls , and at this stage in our childhood, she didn...