Scarlett

Scarlett O'Hara has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My grandmother, my Yankee grandmother as I refer to her to my South Carolina friends, was obsessed with Gone With The Wind. When I was younger, I did not understand the obsession. What did a woman who was raised during the Great Depression and WWII in a small town in Pennsylvania have in common with the spoiled, yet ever-resislant Scarlett? When I got older, my grandmother, Gigi as we called her, told me that her father's parents owned a small farm in South Hill, VA. A small tobacco farm. Not that I know much about growing tobacco, but I do know that it is extremely hard work. As a young student of American history, I hesitantly asked the most embarrassing, yet necessary question - was there, ahem, additional labor to help in the fields? My Yankee grandmother responded, "Why yes, I suppose so." I have no idea whether she was telling the truth or not, but it was shocking to think that there was a possibility that my great-great grandparents had participated in that most horrific Southern "tradition." It was also the first time that I realized that there maybe more similarities between Scarlett and Gigi than I originally thought.

My grandmother was a hopeless romantic. I blame her for my addiction to a good love story and the joy I get at every happy ending. Scarlett fit with that. Gigi would visit her father's family in South Hill and loved spending time with her grandparents, Big Papa and Big Mama. (Sidenote-could those names be any more Southern???) I'm sure she imagined herself in a big hoop skirt, about to run into Ashely Wilkes around the next corner. Now I doubt Big Papa's house resembled Tara but I think I can safely assume that hardly stopped my grandmother.

She loved Scarlett and Rhett and she loved Melanie and Ashley. The soap opera-esque tale captivated her, much like it captivated the nation when the story was published in 1936. I will never know my grandmother's personal thoughts about Scarlett but if the number of dolls, figurines, Christmas ornaments, books and other movie memorabilia is anything to go by, I think it's safe to say that Gigi adored Scarlett. And it is because of that adoration of her and her story that Gigi would routinely quote some of the most famous last words ever published in America: "After all, tomorrow is another day." Those words have come to define my life and not just because Gigi said them so many times. My mother, Gigi's eldest daughter, took them on as a kind of mantra so I heard them, and still do hear them, all the time. Something bad happens? Don't worry, tomorrow is another day! I don't get an A on a paper or don't wind that award? It's okay, tomorrow is another day! Two of the most important women in my life have adopted those words as their own. And I see no reason why I should not do the same.