It's Fruitcake Weather... A Classic Christmas Short Story by Truman Capote
A Christmas Memory
Revisited by James Romano
Hello 1,000 Bookies!! Today on our journey through literature we stop in the southern United States during the Great Depression. As we celebrate the literature of the holiday season, we will discuss today, A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. Purchase any collection of Christmas literature (and believe me I have several) this tale is included in each. Written by Truman Capote, who was an eccentric writer and celebrity—A Christmas Memory tell the story of his last Christmas living with relatives in rural Alabama. Capote is known for writing the original true crime book, In Cold Blood (one of the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die). In Cold Blood describes the true story of a murder of a family in the 1950s in rural Kansas. Capote also wrote the classic story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s which because the film most associated with actress Audrey Hepburn. A Christmas Memory is quite a cute story because it details a friendship between a young 7-year-old boy and his much older cousin for what will be their last Christmas together. This is a short story but filled with lots of nostalgia. The story has been developed into several made of tv movies, the last one starring Patty Duke.
Truman Capote lives a difficult and troubled early life. His parents divorced when he was four and he was sent to live with his mother’s relatives in Alabama. You can tell he was still bitter about his treatment when he wrote the line in the story, “Those who Know Best decide that I belong in military school”. Even the relatives he lived with were fairly dismissive of him. The way he portrays them in the story, he was an afterthought and treated rather poorly. However, an elderly cousin also resides in the house and she becomes his best friend. I identified with several aspects of the story. The first aspect was the point of view of a 7-year-old boy, at that same age I was very close with each my grandmothers, my great-grandmother, and several great-aunts. I was very lucky for these older women in my life to take a great interest in me.
In the story the elderly relative refers to the young boy who serves as the narrator as Buddy after a playmate who died in the 1880s. I again identified with that detail in the story, the death of a young playmate truly never leaves you. When I was in preschool, a little girl I was friends with, Colby, died. Colby was the only one who made the daycare I attended two days a week (and was tortured by the attendants) bearable. One day I was playing with her and then the next she was dead from viral meningitis. I could not comprehend nor understand what happened (and honestly still do not understand why God took her), and 40 years later I still think of her, that pour little girl. I remember when saying my prayers for years—praying for Uncle Jim (my deceased godfather) and Colby. The trauma stays with you.
The story begins with Buddy’s cousin telling him, “Its fruitcake weather”. Every year Buddy and his cousin make fruitcakes. This must be a family recipe. They save up during the year to purchase ingredients. Today holiday Fruitcakes are mostly derided but to those who lived in the 1930s, a fruitcake must have been a holiday treat. The dessert is Christmas to some. I remember my great-grandmother always enjoying a fruitcake for Christmas, my grandmother (her daughter-in-law) always gave her one. And Nana Burke loved it, she also liked a high ball once in a while but that’s another story. We can compare fruitcakes with the English dessert “The Christmas Pudding” or “Figgie Pudding”, which was a staple at Christmas.
The family in the story is poor. The story mainly centers of the acquiring of the ingredients which is very fun. Buddy and his best friend really wanted to make these cakes. First, they use an old baby carriage and head to a grove of pecan trees. Technically speaking the grove is owned by someone else and they are trespassing in their collection of pecans. Buddy and his cousin have to search and search for pecans that have fallen from the trees. What I only can imagine is a process of searching that takes hours and hours to fill up the baby carriage with pecans. Then they have to be shelled. The ingredients for the fruitcakes are cherries, citron, ginger, vanilla, canned Hawaiian pineapple, rinds, raisins, and the marvelous ingredient of whiskey.
My favorite part of the story comes when Buddy and his best friend goes to obtain whiskey. Now most fruitcake recipes I have looked at have either rum or whiskey or both and in this story Buddy and his cousin have to obtain it. So, they go see Mr. Haha Jones, a native American, who runs an establishment where they could get the whiskey they need. Now this is either at the tale end of prohibition, but even though the Prohibition Amendment was repealed—many states in the south still prohibited the development and serving of alcoholic beverages. Obtaining the whiskey could not be easy. Mr. Haha Jones had an interesting reputation. He ran basically a speakeasy. Mr. Jones was called Haha because of his gloomy disposition. His place of business also had a reputation and people had been killed there. In the past they dealt with Mrs. Haha but the day they go to his café, Mr. Jones himself answers the door. Can you imagine his initial reaction upon seeing a kid and an old woman asking for his best whiskey? Mr. Haha provides them the whiskey and when they hand him the two dollars in pennies, nickels, and dimes, he kindly asks them, “which one of you is a drinking man”. When they tell him that the whiskey is for making fruitcakes, he gives them their money back and just asks for one of the cakes. I really enjoyed that. Mr. Haha was really a softy.
What is fascinating is Buddy and his cousin do not make the cakes for family member or their neighbors. They mail the fruitcakes to acquaintances and people they do not even know. The mail one cake to President and Mrs. Roosevelt in the White House, which they get a letter back thanking them. This whole process is very eccentric which was the point of the story.
We all have that special recipe in our family. That one food item that is almost synonymous with Christmas. In my family, that recipe is for zeppole or as the family called them zipples. The recipe was my great-grandmother, Maria Romano’s recipe. She only made the zipples on Christmas Eve. My cousin, Regina Romano interviewed the family and developed a family history. Prominently in the stories about Christmas, front and center of the story was the fried dough with raisins, tangerine peel (chopped), and orange juice in them. Then they are drizzled with honey. My grandmother learned how to make them for her husband and children. Every year on Christmas Eve she would send a big bowl of them home with my dad when he stopped afterwork to visit on his way home. An hour after frying them, the zipples become hard (and gooey). My father loved them, and Christmas day could not start without his coffee and zipples. Personally, I never liked them to be honest. However, the year my grandmother passed away I decided to make them for my dad on his visit to Virginia. I still remember him walking in as I was finishing. It took me a while to get the recipe right, there I am every December when my father visits that Sunday morning frying up zipples for him. I have gotten quite good and making them. We all have the recipes that make us enjoy Christmas.
A Christmas Memory is a melancholy tale. For this is Buddy’s last Christmas with his relatives. Buddy is sent to military school. When he leaves, his beloved cousin and best friend slowly slips away. I really enjoyed A Christmas Memory, because it is a heartfelt story. I recommend you read it and share with those you love.
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