Tamara Canup

"I just thought that pink car was ugly."

 

By Tamara Canup

 

 

Jaunita was a young, vivacious woman from a rough-neck, middle class, working family in the early 1950's. She had large, stunning eyes and a loud mouth. She was sharp as a tac and tough as nails, even for her slight build. According to Juanita, she was the only woman in history to say, "No, thank you!" to one of the sexiest men to ever walk the red dirt of the Southeastern states. How true her account is no one can be sure, but she leans back in her porch swing, takes a hard pull at her Marlboro, and spins her web all the same. We just hold on tight and believe the magic she's sewing is true.

 

She was visiting family in Mississippi when that car pulled up behind the church and Elvis Presley got out. He was traveling through the Southeast and Midsouth singing gospel and building his celebrity, and her cousin's little white, clapboard church was one of his stops. He stood at the pulpit, eyes fixed on Heaven, and sang with all his might about God's good will and true love for man. When he got to "Amazing Grace", hands raised, voices sang out, "Amen!" and "Hallelujah!", and women fell out in the Spirit, or because of the pure delight that man was to look at.

 

After the show and a brief sermon, Elvis and his manager walked back behind the sanctuary to the church offices and greeted congregants as they shuffled by. Unimpressed by his swagger, Juanita cut out the back, and meandered over gravel and dirt clots to a dead tree leaning up against another. A smoker since 15, she pulled one out of her clutch and proceeded to light it up, pushing the tar and nicotine out through her teeth and her nostrils, admiring her manicured nails.

 

Eventually her cousin came 'round the corner and saw Juanita standing there. She had some sort of worried look of excitement etched across her face, and beads of sweat gathering on her brow under the hot Mississippi sun.

 

"JUANITA!! JUANITA, I'VE BEEN LOOKIN' FOR YOU!", she screamed and halfway ran, halfway curtsied in her Sunday dress and shoes, trying to hurry, but not ruin her heels. Juanita, less impressed and well dressed, lit up another cigarette. "And I'm here. What the hell's wrong with you?"

 

"Juanita...", her cousin panted, resting her hand upon her knee and breathing deeply. "Juanita, we have got to go! Elvis has just pulled that pink Cadillac of his around and he asked me if I wanted to ride!! JUANITA! I'ma get to ride with Elvis!!!"

 

Juanita dragged on her cigarette again and muttered, "Aight, good for you."

 

Her cousin scowled, "JUANITA. You have got to come with me. My Daddy said I can't ride unless you come with me. YOU HAVE GOT TO COME WITH ME, JUANITA!"

 

Juanita rolled her eyes and squinted up towards the sun bearing down on her forehead. "Look, I don't wanna go. I don't wanna ride in his car. I don't want to talk to him. I don't want to do any of that." She put her cigarette out on the gravel and leaned back again.

 

Her cousin stood, legs apart, mouth open, eyes wide, and in total and utter disbelief. "Whhhhyyyy???", she whined. "It's Elvis, Juanita!! Elvis wants us to ride with him! And I can't go if you don't go!! Why won't you go with me?!" Juanita shrugged her shoulders, "I just don't want to. I'm not impressed."

 

Right that moment, her cousin became overcome with hysterics. She couldn't go, she wanted so badly to go, Daddy won't let her go alone, why is Juanita being so cruel, and on and on it went.

 

Not one for such putting on, Juanita finally relented a bit, "Look, I'll walk over and say something to him, you get in the car, I'll act like I'm gettin' in, your Daddy will head on to the house, and then you can just go with him yourself. I just don't feel like sittin' in that pink car and ridin' around Mississippi, lookin' like some kinda idiot. Now, will you quit cryin' like that?"

 

Her cousin cleared up immediately, pulled out a handkerchief, and dabbed at her eyes to clean up her mascara. The plan was in motion and together they followed it through perfectly. Her cousin got in, Elvis was awkward, in a charming sort of way, Juanita waited until about everyone had left the church yard, and Elvis and her cousin were off in a whirlwind of spinning tires and flying red dirt.

 

Juanita smoked a few more cigarettes and walked to her Uncle's house in town. 30 minutes later that pink Cadillac met her on the dirt road, dropped her cousin off, and away Elvis Presley went.

 

Juanita, now in her 70's, ends the story here. As young girls, my own cousin and I would sit, legs crossed, smiles wide across our freckled cheeks, and shriek when she'd tell us she'd said, "No thanks" to Elvis Presley. We'd throw our heads back and moan, "Why?? Why would you do that, Nana???", and she only ever had one response.

 

"I just thought that pink car was ugly" And that was the end of it.