San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-25

The Pardees take" eighteen din
ers-no more. This because Mrs
Pardee has eighteen of everything
in silver. As for Maxine, you flint
her rather severe-featured, Hebt
in a white silk blouse ordered through
Vogue.
All this should have been told il
the past tense, because Pardee's j:
no more. But Okoochee, Oklahoma
is full of paradoxes like Pardce's
Before you understand Maxine Par
dee and her mother in the kitchen
(dishing up you have to know Okoo'
chez. And before you know Okoo'
chez you have TO know Sam Pardee
missing.
It was inevitable that Sam PardeC
should hear of Okoochee; and, hear
ing Of it, drift there. From boom
town TO boom town he went. The
first stampede always found him
there. deep in blue-prints, engineer
ing sheets, prospectuses.
A swashbuckler, Sam Pardec, in
tan shoes and a brown derby. An
1890 Villon handicapped by home
loving wife. Milly Pardee's idea of
adventure was testing the recipes il
Illustrated in the How To Use the
Cheaper Cuts page in the back of
the wOman's magazines.
Perverselt enough. they had been
drawn together by the very attrac-
ton Of dissimilarity. She had come
Of a good family; he of, seemingly,
no family at all. When the two
married, Milly's people went through
that ablutionary process known as
washing their hands of her. Thus
ideally mismated. they tried to make
the best of it-and failed. At least.
Sam Pardee failed.
Theirs was n feast-and-famine ex-
istcnce. Sometimes Sam Pardee
made sudden thousands. Mrs. Pardee
would bug silver, linen. and other
household furnishings. The furniture
was usually whisked away within a
few weeks or months at the longest.
But Milly Pardee chung stubbornly to
q dozen and a half of everything in
silver. For years she carried that
silver about wrapped in trunks full
of the precious linen. She chung to
it desperately, as other women cling
TO jewels, knowing that when this is
gone. no more will follow.
When the child was born Milly
Pardee wanted TO name Ter Myrtle
but her husband had said, suddenly,
mo, call her Maxine
EAfter whom?' In Mrs. Pardee's
code you named a child after" some
one.
He had seen Maxine Elliott in thJ
heyday of her cold, clear, brainless
beauty, with her great, slightly pro,
tuberant eyes set so far apart, hel
exquisitely chiselled white nose, and
her black hair. She had thrilled
him.
After my Uncle Max that live:
in-uh-Australia."
"I've never heard you talk Of an,
Uncle Max" said Mrs. PardCe, cod
ly.
But the name had won. How coul,
they know that Maxine would grow
up to be a rather bony young woma,
who preferred these high-coIlare,
white silk blouses and said "cyether:
Maxine had been about lively
when Okoochee beckcned Sam Pardee
They were living in Chicago at tn
time. They had a four-room flat
Maxine was attending a good schoo
Mrs. Pardee marketed and cooked, con
tentedly.
In the midst of creature comfort
such as these Sam Pardee said. ON
evening. coil"
Mrs. Pardee passed it. but not Will
out remOnStranCe. ITS the sam
identical French dressing you ha
last night, Sam. l mixed enough fo
twice. And you didn't add any o
last night"
Sam Pardee came out Of his al
straction long enough 10 emit a roa
of laughter and an unsatisfactory e,
PLANTATION. Il was thinking of oil
wells, not in cruets. Millions of ba
rels of oil, not a spoonful. Crud
not olive"
She saw her child, her peace, h,
linen closet threatened. Sam Parde
you don't mean"
%Oklahoma. That's what meal
by Gil. It's oozing with it,
Real terror leaped into Nilly Pa
dee's eyes. mot Oklahoma. Sal
j couldn't stand" Suddenly 81
stiffened with resolve. Maxine's 7
port card had boosted three sta
5:at week. Oklahoma. Il woI
bring my child up in Oklahoma. ]
dams. that's what! Scalped in o
beds"
Above Sam Pardee's roar sound
Mnrinn's ercifnl frnhln 100 Okl