LADIES OF THE ORDER OF
THE MEMPHIS EASTERN STAR
PSALM 4:2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?
Holly, Amanda, Grace, and Eunice have been best friends since they were in Mrs. Wilson’s preschool in Grant Parish, Louisiana. Growing up in the fifties, life was tranquil, a time of freedom. Everyone knew his or her neighbor; doors left unlocked; children rode bicycles with abandon anywhere in town. Neighbors cared. The girls did everything together and kept no secrets from each other. Their bonds ran deep; loyalty was their motto.
This was the life that Holly, Amanda, Grace, and Eunice enjoyed. There were trees to climb, horses to ride, creeks to explore, secret places to hide under the canopy of pines where they would sit for hours telling secrets or gossip about the boys or nosy old busy body “redneck” neighbors. They had the pure freedom to be girls, Southern girls, “raised properly”, if you talked with their mamas. They had deep bonds.
Holly is not as sharp as the rest of her peers due to an accident at birth, her intellect not progressing past the first grade but that doesn’t matter to the girls. It didn’t matter then, and it just doesn’t matter now. They are friends, for their friendship knows no boundaries nor has room for prejudice.
When the girls turned 13, they spent forever locked in Amanda’s room with the music of Rock and Roll bouncing off the walls from the record player as they practiced the jitterbug, the Mashed Potato, the Swim, the Twist, the Pony or the Stroll. The fear of boys asking them to dance and being all left feet was forever on their minds. They would be horrified not being prepared. Elvis was their preferred musician. He was young and gorgeous; they were young and madly in love with the King.
In the tenth grade they became Rainbow Girls making sure that Holly was included because it would have been rude otherwise. “Friendship is not cruel,” they would tell others. The rituals appealed to them and were easy for Holly to follow since she thrived on repetition. And the dances, oh, the dances were divine. They danced all the latest.
Life was full of boys and music and music and boys and ELVIS, mostly ELVIS. There were lots of Elvis themed birthday parties like Pin the Guitar on Elvis, Elvis musical chairs, Elvis impersonator costume events, Elvis decorated cakes, Elvis anything. Their parents went along even though they feared this new Rock and Roll and especially this Pied Piper called Elvis. “He is dangerous” was the topic of conversation behind locked bedroom doors. Yet they went along although they were afraid of what this music was doing to their girls. They went along afraid of losing their girls, not realizing it was too late because the King had already taken over their children’s very souls.
The girls, living together now, are middle aged and divorced and living near Graceland. The men could not compete with the King, not even the best of them. Holly never married. The four are members of the Eastern Star and still carry a love for Elvis. Their house is filled with Elvis memorabilia, Elvis scarves, Elvis albums, photos of them being kissed by Elvis, or of places where he might have stood. They have throws, comforters, decanters, and Elvis plates to eat on, Elvis place mats with Elvis glasses. There is even a fat Elvis cookie jar from his later years. Holly even painted a nude Elvis on the bathroom wall with his legs in that seductive pose.
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