Thursday, March 4, 2010
People The Last Photograph of Mother and Father Lauderdale
Posted by Vance Lauderdale on Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 10:11 PM
- Mr. and Mrs. Lauderdale
The yellowed snapshot was taken during an excursion to Maywood, and even though it was the middle of June, Mother is wearing her beloved chihuahua-fur coat and stuffing a Hostess Twinkie in her mouth (she gobbled them down by the dozen). And there's Pa, smoking a Pall-Mall, which is what eventually set the house on fire, when he fell asleep — dead drunk, as usual — with a lit cigarette dangling from his tobacco-stained lips.
The picture brings back painful memories, you see, because just a few days later — having squandered what little was left of the family fortune — they abandoned me in Memphis and tried to evade the taxman by escaping to Canada. And there I was, a mere child of 27, left behind in the Mansion, unable to feed myself or even open a can of dogfood for my supper. Luckily, the lady from Social Services found me in time, and ... well, you know the rest.
This photo was the one used by the FBI on their WANTED poster. As blurry as it is, it worked, too. The authorities nabbed Mother and Father just as they were trying to sneak across the border into Nova Scotia, and — oh, I don't want to talk about it anymore.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
like
dislike
I loved Maywood, especially the pop-top pull rings buried in the sand. I spent many a happy hour there as a child, awaiting a tetanus shot. I think I may have seen your parents a time or two, hanging around the bait shop, minnow bucket full of icy Schlitz's on the hump between the seats of Mr. Lauderdale's Pontiac? On especially hot days, didn't her fur coat shed something awful?
