Idella

1. Idella Chapter 3 By James Walkup and Justin Stephens

2. Crescent Beach • Crescent Beach is a beach near St. Augustine. Mrs. Rawlings owns a cottage there where they go often. • Idella did not like the trips because it meant extra work for her. • “Mrs. Rawlings owned a cottage at Crescent Beach, just south of St. Augustine, and sometimes we’d drive over there in the morning, have lunch, and drive back to Cross Creek the same afternoon.” Idella

3. Wrong Turn on a Stormy Day • Wrong Turn on a Stormy Day is about Idella turning down the wrong road on the way to the beach cottage. • “I remember one time when the danger of that lonely dirt road did make itself plain.” Idella • “It was getting dark, and we had been stuck in the mud for five long hours and no one had come by, and we began to worry that no help was coming.” Idella

4. The Beach Cottage • The Beach Cottage is about instead of living in Cross Creek, they spent time living in their beach cottage. • “The cottage was small and box-shaped, painted yellow with white trim.” Idella

5. Rattle Snakes! • Rattle Snakes is about Idella and Mrs. Rawlings having a problem with rattlesnakes around and in their beach cottage. • “ But I was glad the snake was gone, and from that day to this I always look in the toilet before I sit down.” Idella • “ There was so many in those bushes between the house and the road, that I had to take the car and drive the 100 or so yards to the mail box to pick up the mail.” Idella

6. I Go to School • I Go to School is about Idella going to beautician school. • “ I was grateful to Mrs. Rawlings for doing all this for me, of course. But don’t forget that I was young and wanted to have fun too.” Idella

7. Walking to Butler’s Beach • Walking to Butler’s Beach is about how Idella notices a bunch of black people during one of her walks on the beach. • “After walking more than a mile, I could see that they were black people, and my steps quickened.” Idella • “In all it was about two miles, but well worth the long walk, because there on the beach I met people who would soon become good friends.” Idella

8. Trouble Begins • Trouble Begins is about Idella using Mrs. Rawlings’ car a lot, driving to see her friends and family, and talking a little about her love life. • “I even drove groups of my new friends to Tampa or Jacksonville to see football games.” Idella

9. Mrs. Rawlings Buys a Ticket • Mrs. Rawlings Buys a ticket is about how Mrs. Rawlings buys some of Idella’schurch tickets. Mrs. Rawlings doesn’t just buy a 10 cent ticket, she gives Idella a $150 check! • “It was then that I began to realize how generous Mrs. Rawlings was when it came to people or organizations that really needed help.” Idella

10. I’m Goin’ Back to My Mama • I’m Goin’ Back to My Mama is about Mrs. Rawlings taking Little Martha (a little girl from Cross Creek) to her beach cottage. The little girl didn’t like being alone without her siblings or her mom. She would sing a song to herself saying that she wanted to go back home to her mama. • “As she snapped, she was making up a little tuneless song to herself.” Idella

11. Hettie • Hettie is about her sister, Hettie, leaving for a while when they were younger. Hettie and Idella were really close, and when they were separated it caused a fear of being left alone to set in both their minds. • “This separation was more than I could bear, and I cried and cried for weeks after she was gone, and ever after there was a sadness in me that nothing could change.” Idella

12. Waiting for Mr. Baskin • Waiting for Mr. Baskin is about how Mrs. Rawlings always wants Mr. Baskin to come over or write to her. She wanted to get married most of all. • “The disappointment on her face, when the mail came and there was no letter from him, was sad to see.” Idella

13. He tried his best to make her happy, but real happiness seemed to be justout of her reach • She seemed restless…always moving from one thing to another • Traveling from one place to another, thinking the next place would be better • She thought (and so did Idella) that marriage would make her happy “What neither of us realized was that marriage would upset our way of life much more than either of us ever dreamed.”