Early Morning Train Outta Georgia
I meant to post last night after my two appearances in Atlanta, but E. Lynn Harris had a wonderful party for me at his beautiful home in Buckhead and I didn’t get back to my hotel till late so I packed and tried to sleep and got up this morning at 6:30 a.m. in order to catch a train to Birmingham. Who catches a train outta Georgia to Alabama? Who else. Me. Folks last night at the party didn’t even know there was a train from Atlanta to Birmingham. So if you’re over in Birmingham reading this right now, come hear me read and let me sign a book for you at Books A Million at 757 Brookwood Village. I’ll be there at 7 p.m. tonight April 4th, God willin’ and the water don’t rise, as I heard somebody say last night about something else. That’s an old southern expression I hadn’t heard in years and just wanted to use it this morning myself.
In the meantime, you can go on Bookslut.com and read an interview with me about the book by Stephanie Merchant, someone who really understood what I was trying to do when I wrote it. It was just posted yesterday. Bookslut.com is a great site for book lovers and I am happy I was asked to be on it.
I’ll write more once at get across the state line.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Hey Kevin, Im in Charlottesville, Va. My Friends Brenda and Tyrone Neal (they’re from New Orleans area) gave me your book on cd and Ive been falling in love ever since, Bravo!!!! Feel free to come to town and Ill put you up… NSA.Charlottesville is a nice place and perhaps a stopover for a traveler such as yourself. Gee… Ive never acted so like a “FAN”…what the hell! lol! Have a lovely easter ciao johno
April 4th, 2007 at 8:48 am
hi again, you wrote: “I’ll write more once at get across the state line.” do you have the ability to post onto this blog using a blackberry? SO COOL!
April 4th, 2007 at 9:46 am
“Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” is an earlier version of this Alabama axiom. It’s been awhile since I heard or used that one. I enjoy the idioms of my native habitants. Here’s one that brought delight to me when a dear old lady told me of her consternation at something or other which had had disturbed her: “Lord, I threw a compound hissy with a crocheted tail.”
I’ve thrown a few of those, too.
Kevin, I have tried to find photographs of your parents on the web w/o success. Google takes me on a circuitous route which brings me back to you. If you ever do post more family pics, might you include your parents photos?
April 4th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Just finished your book last week and enjoyed it immensely. The quotation from Ms. O’ Connor was dead on and though many don’t consider Texas to part of the Deep South (and maybe it’s not), we have our share of freaks too. I can’t imagine the pain of losing parents at such a young age, but you seem to have a great solidarity with your siblings and that’s got to be a huge plus.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Kevin, your middle name must be Tenacious. I was astonished when you said you took a train from N.O. to Hattiesburg. In all the time I lived in N.O., I had no idea that one could do such a thing, much less today. And now Atlanta to B’ham. Who knew?
I hope the folks at St. Martin’s appreciate your efforts.
April 4th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Kevin: I like it that you take trains. This country such a “car culture” that it is sickening. Great cartoon showing a monster pulling people out of their cars and eating them in The New Yorker some years ago. The caption read as one giant monster spoke to another insect looking monster holding up a tiny human that had been pulled from its car, “Actually they taste quite good once you get them out of their shells.”
Meanwhile the French have tested and are celebrating their new high speed train that goes 357 miles an hour.
We went to see the cherry blossoms here in Washington,D.C. yesterday with about a million other people. It was a picture perfect day and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and never looked better.
My wife and I rode the train they call The City of New Orleans from Chicago to New Orleans in March 1965. It was still the old Illinois Central then. Now there is still a train by that name but it is Amtrak’s version.
We left Chicago in a snowstorm blizzard and when we got to Hammond and New Orleans, Louisiana the azaleas were in bloom.
April 4th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Kevin - I just finished reading your book, and the horrible final section about Frank Hains’ death just broke my heart - I can’t imagine experiencing something so terrifying & horrendous. I never knew your circle of friends in Jackson, but I read about them in Frank’s columns, and they were a lifeline for me to theater and art and a world beyond my own small town. Thanks for sharing your story………….a fellow Mississippi Sissy
April 4th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
It was such a delight to meet you and hear you read from your book and answer the questions that were asked.
Having also grown up in rural Mississippi, having also been reared in the vile tenets of racism, having also grown up thinking I was the bizarre, unnatural outcast, your book and your words have given me the validation that I am just as respectable and just as decent as all of them. I may be different (and those of us from Mississippi know that “different” is not embraced there). I may not have 3 kids and a beautiful wife like my brother. But there are many things I do have in my life: self-respect, integrity, identity, and many people who love and respect me.
Kevin, thanks for letting me know that it’s okay, we’re okay. Best wishes as you continue on your book tour. Peace.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Hello Kevin–Your appearance (and your outstanding reading!) at Outwrite in Atlanta was simply wonderful. I’m the teacher who actually saw you perform in the state one-act play contest and win the Best Actor award! I’m really getting into your book now, and it’s superb. I know you will soon be in the NY Times top ten; I have no doubt. I love the way you thoughtfully answer every question put to you and personalize each autograph with a comment. Your courage and artistry and success are all inspirational to me; I’m thrilled with your success. I look forward to following your amazing career; THANK YOU for “Mississippi Sissy”! All the very best to you–Manning
April 4th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
finished the book yesterday… will comment when i have my thoughts gathered…
April 4th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
trains are good, even in the south
April 5th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Kev, you seem to be quite the educator around these here parts. Trains are a great way to travel when you have the time and flexibility. I love taking the train from Atlanta to New Orleans and back…it’s a great way to relax, unwind and read a book. I read “Finding the Boyfriend Within” on the train right after my divorce at the beginning of my second coming out in one sitting from Atlanta to New Orleans.
April 5th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Kevin: Great to meet you in Atlanta. Thanks for the encouragement at the cocktail party. I’m loving the book so far — and now have your distinct voice in my head as I read it! Safe travels.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
kevin i dont know what to say… a proffessor once said after reading some things i wrote “reading your writing is like having the top of my head blown off then resettled into a new functioning reality” i feel the same about your book.. we have so much in common. i remember my grandmother so much. her sewing machine i sat beneth and watched opy taylor on tv as she “sewed for the public” . i was comfortable there. how hard it was to go to my daddys fertilize store and be mistaken for a girl… i remember singing michael row your boat ashore and it only takes a spark durning MYF meetings.. (the church bought us microphones after hearing me sing in a group from a bigger church).. i remember jacks mom and dad from jackson and how much i admired them supporting their son no matter how outta place they looked taking queer money at the door.. most of all i remember that youth directors smooth sneaky hands after giving me draminamine to sleep. how he shared me with ministers from 5 states on that summer chior tour(and i cant carry a tune in a bucket). the baptist that summer , murdered my soul.. i remember my appled knee as my uncles showed me how a horse ate an apple.. your book brought back so many memories.. i thank you.. your interview on bookslut was wonderful. it made me think about oscar wilde and his trials.. the proscecuter would ask him a ? and he would come back with a wonderful long eloquent musical line of words that were beautiful,calming and from the heart yet thought of and processed in his great mind.. i struggled through your book and i struggled to even write this on your blog for people to read… thanks for the book.. forever thankful to you …from the not so shy and not so sexy guy from tupelo…
p.s. i wonder if jack reed knows a preacher at his store hooked me up with the minister of music that murdered my soul?????/
April 6th, 2007 at 9:42 am
don, thank you- thank u; thank you
April 6th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Kevin: You are getting some really great postings on this board. I enjoy each and every one.
And yes to trains and those that ride them. And yes to those special few people in this world who do not own a car and do not have a driver’s license.
My grandmother rode the train from Meridian,Miss. to Washington,D.C. in the old days. The wonderful train on the Southern Railroad called The Southerner. There was also a Southern Crescent. Both trains ran from New Orleans to Washington,D.C. They still have a Crescent train I believe on AMTRAK.
This is also the train Eudora Welty would ride when she took the train to NYC. She would take a train from Jackson to Meridian and change trains there to get on the Southerner. I think she wrote a short story about this that is set in the train station in Meridian,Miss. I believe there was a lay over there to wait and it was always late at night. In D.C. they would change trains again to head on up to NYC.
I used to ride the Southerner all the time. My grandmother having taught me to ride trains. What I remember best is that at dawn coming north the train would be nearing Charlottesville,Virginia and when you went into the fancy dining car and sat down there on your plate would be THAT morning’s Washington Post newspaper.
For those that never traveled by train all I can say is you dont know what you missed in the old days. Train travel was by far the most civilized way to travel and still is in Europe.
I think it was watching the movie Elmer Gantry(and reading the book)that taught me to watch out for preachers. When I lived in Miss. I felt the people often get religion and sex mixed up and can’t tell the difference. Not to mention football.
April 6th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Dear Kevin,
I, too, knew the wonderful and engaging Joe Rex. I was so pleased to find you thought so kindly of him. He was an undergrad at M.C. and a student of my father’s. When I was nine years old, Joe Rex took me to see A Hard Day’s Night at—was it?–the Hilltop. You may not recall me, but you and were in classes together at Millsaps (and knew Lynn and Jeanine). Back then, while you were hiding your homosexuality and secretly going to gay clubs, I was hiding my gender dysphoria and secretly cross dressing. (I had a sex change [M2F] in 1997, by the way.) It’s a pity we suffered apart . . .
Yours,
Jes
April 6th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
i love you jess
April 6th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
HI Kevin,
I’m not quite through with your book “Mississippi Sissy” yet but already I enjoy it very much. Growing up gay in a small homophobic city was difficult enough without being overly effeminate. I can only imagine how horrible growing up in a small racist, homophobic overly intolerant town in 1960’s Mississippi must have been like. I’m sure fear was your almost constant companion. One postive bi product of your being different was that you were able to meet some of the more intelligent, witty and humane people in the state. Good Luck in everything you do
April 7th, 2007 at 5:35 am
terry jones
naturals? dark hair ? big brown eyes ?
April 10th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I love you, too, Vicki. Thanks for reading and responding to me. You are so supporting and “discerning” as Kevin mentions in today’s blog.
Jes
May 8th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Kevin:I read the interview you had about your book(Mississippi Sissy) & i think i will buy a copy from Barnes & Noble.if they don’t have it on hand i will order it.Its nothing like a true story.I think you are true to yourself & i think that goes a long way in life.I think all paths lead to the top of the mountain and once we all get there,we all see the same moon…..Mother Nature never made anything perfect,when there is too much at one end,there is going to be something lacking at the other end.The American Indians call it balance…..Amen (Latin for” So Be It”)