I just returned from our fourth year of celebration after a two year break due to Covid. Another great weekend of memories, laughs and celebrations with avid readers from around the country.
Many, many years ago Mary Pratt Lobdell taught my older two sons in 8th grade English. She and I hit it off as fast friends and when I was back in school to become an English teacher myself she was quick to offer her support. Then as fate would have it and I could have never guessed, I was hired to be a junior high English teacher at Lee Road Junior High with her by my side. She then quickly took me under her wing and mentored me to help shape me into a strong teacher leader. But in all that time I did not have a real understanding that Walker Percy was her father.
It was that first summer after teaching I was with the writing project out of SLU and there was this big flurry because we were going to go to the house of Walker Percy to sit and talk with his wife. While I was in their beautiful home I looked over and saw Mary Pratt's picture and asked what her picture was doing there and got a quick that is his daughter.
She has always had that unassuming approach to being a member of this grand legacy. And I think that makes her even more special. And it is also why I feel so privileged to have been able to accompany her this weekend to St. Francesville to the Walker Percy Weekend. It was a joy to see men who received a doctorates from Harvard ask to pose with her in a picture. And also to see young men the ages of my sons wearing suit and tie standing for long periods of time questioning her about her dad.
I could not help but smile from ear to ear to think of how blessed she must feel to get to spend this precious time in memory of her father, knowing he was closer to her in those moments than ever. Friday night was a cocktail party in the old historic cemetery. Saturday had a lineup of speakers dealing with all types of issues analyzing the southern writer. My two favorites were the lecture on The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Flannery O'Conner and The Religion of Me, Myself, and I and a Panel Discussion: Memoirs of a Mississippi Boy.
Saturday night was the Bourbon Walk in many of the homes in the historic section followed by a crawfish boil with live music. I highly suggest any lover of southern literature attend this event. It is held the first weekend of June each summer, and it is certainly a way to kick off the warm humid season.
For those of you who are not familiar with this author, he was known for his philosophical novels that were set around New Orleans. His first novel, The Moviegoer, won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. "He devoted his literary life to the exploration of the dislocation of man in the modern age. His work displays a combination of existential questioning, southern sensibility, and deep Catholic faith," as stated in an online bio.
Some famous quotes?
•To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.
•You can get all A's and still flunk life.
•We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away.
