Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill:
Can you believe that somebody wanted to interview me? Me? I’m all the time interviewing other people around in Hollyhill for the paper, but I never expected anyone to want to interview me. And not for the Hollyhill Banner, but for some other magazine or something. Wes says I must be famous, and he hopes I won’t forget my old friends. I told him I could never ever forget him. Maybe I should interview him sometime. Or Dad. Or Aunt Love. That might be interesting. But today, I just want to share this interview where somebody is asking me questions with you.
- Jocie Brooke, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Gosh, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m probably not like the heroines you usually invite over here. I’m thirteen and always getting in trouble with my Aunt Love. No big romances for me yet, but I do see a lot about what’s going on in Hollyhill. Not that that much ever goes on in our little town here in 1964. So maybe the most interesting thing about me is my curiosity. I want to know things. I want to write about the things I find out about. You see, my dad is the editor of the local paper and he lets me write a piece for it now and then – if I don’t get too lax with the facts. He sometimes says he believes I have more of a future in fiction than in the newspaper business. Oh, and then there’s my friend, Wes. He’s very interesting. So what if he’s old enough to be my grandfather and says he’s from Jupiter. He’s still my best friend. I love his Jupiter stories.
- What do you do for fun?
I like to ride my bicycle. I love dogs, especially Zebedee even if he is the ugliest dog you can imagine. I like to walk in the woods. That’s where I found Zeb. And I love to read. What could possibly be more fun than reading as long as it’s not some boring history assignment from school?
- What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Homework, of course. And carrying Aunt Love’s canning jars to the cellar. There are spiders down in that cellar and it’s dark. Could even be snakes. Wouldn’t you put that off if you could? But it’s one of my chores and I have to do it.
- What are you afraid of most in life?
Losing my dad. You see, my mother ran off and left us when I was five. So I don’t really have a mother, but I do have the best dad in the world.
- What do you want out of life?
Oh gosh, I would love to write a book someday. One that everybody, and I mean everybody, would want to read. But Dad would tell me I’m not thinking about the right kind of answer to your question. Dad’s not only the editor of our newspaper here in Hollyhill, he’s also a preacher. So it’s kind of his job to get me to look deeper into what might really make me happy. I suppose I want to fall in love someday although I have met absolutely no boy as yet that I can imagine thinking about in a romantic way. But I love the little kids at church and I hope I can be a good mother who takes care of her children the right way instead of being like my mom who didn’t take care of me at all. That’s my someday wants.
Right now, I just want to find out about things and hope something, anything, interesting will happen in Hollyhill. Dad says I’d better be careful what I wish for. Could be when you read Scent of Lilacs you’ll think he’s right.
- What is the most important thing to you?
My family and Wes. Doing good in school. I have to if I want to go to college. And God. Everybody needs to know him. I’ve been trying to get Wes to go to church forever. So that’s important to me too. Seeing Wes at church with me and Dad.
- Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I read everything. Well, everything they have in the Holly County library here and some of the books Wes loans me from his science fiction book club. But you’d never believe the weird stuff he reads. I like books that have mystery and strong girl characters because that’s the kind of story I’d like to be in.
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would have curly hair and a figure. Do you realize how awful it is to be the only girl in the world about to start high school who does not need a bra? I got one anyway, but it would be nice to need to wear it, don’t you think? And my hair. It is so straight that when I try to roll it up it just springs off the curlers. I guess that’s two things, but it would be nice if I could change them both. Dad says I’m fine the way I am, but that’s what a father has to say, isn’t it?
- Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
Oops, it looks like I might have answered this one too soon. But yes, I do have a pet. Finally! I’ve wanted a dog forever and Dad kept putting me off. Then Zebedee followed me home. Really, he did! And I didn’t give him a biscuit or anything. It’s anybody’s guess what kind of dog he is. He’s sort of a dirty white with black spots. Dad says he might have some kind of hound in him and he can bark really loud. That’s why I named him Zebedee. In the Bible it says James and John were sons of thunder, so I figured their daddy, Zebedee must have had a booming voice. I had to beg hard to get Dad to let me keep Zeb after he bonked Aunt Love’s Jezebel cat with his nose. That cat is the meanest cat on record, but Aunt Love calls her Sugar. She’s certainly not my pet! But Zebedee is great.
- If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
What time would I want to see besides the time I’m in right now? Gosh, that takes some thinking. I could be a damsel in distress in a castle. I could see Moses part the Red Sea. I could be a Pony Express rider. Wow, I could think about this question all day! But you probably don’t have all day and I don’t either. I’ve got to get to school. So I’ll just go back to 1956 when I was five years old before my mother left us. That way I might figure out why she wanted to leave and maybe do something to make things different. Dad says I couldn’t, that Mama leaving didn’t have anything to do with me, but at least I could say goodbye. My sister, Tabitha went with her, but neither of them told us they were going. They just took off in the middle of the night. Yes, I think that’s what I would do and then I’d know instead of having to wonder.
Thank you for asking me all these great questions. They gave me plenty to think about.
If you could ask me a question, what would it be?
Comments 6
Somehow I missed reading this blog when it was posted and only found it later. But that didn’t diminish my enjoyment getting to know Jocie better. The questions were thoughtful and the answers delightful.
The terrors of the cellar remind me of a stay with my cousin who lived next door to a Christian boarding school. In the summer they continued to get their milk from the big coolers in the school’s lower level, and we were tasked with taking the gallon jar for a refill. As we headed into that damp, dimly-lit space, my cousin informed me that mice had been seen in there. We sang loudly as we quick-stepped to the cooler and back, hoping our volume would keep any inquisitive rodents at a distance. It must have worked. We made it there and back intact.
Thank you for this creative re-visit with one of your most interesting characters. I find your books delightfully refreshing.
Author
Jocie here: Oh my goodness, that sounds like as scary a trip to that basement as to our cellar. And you had to refill something and not just snatch a jar and run or put down the jars and run. You see what I always wanted to do. Run to get out of there. At least you had somebody with you and the singing sounds like a great idea. Maybe the mice were so busy listening they didn’t think about scampering out to bother you. I was always more afraid of a possible snake than the mice. Aunt Love always said a snake would be good because it would take care of any mouse problem and that any snake that would be in the cellar wouldn’t be poisonous. They wouldn’t kill me, but I figured dying of fright is as bad as from snake venom. But I still have to take the jars of our canning stuff down to the cellar or go fetch whatever Aunt Love needs for cooking. But next time I’ll try singing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” That should help.
Ann: Thanks so much, Jolene, for wanting to get to know Jocie. I recently made audio recordings of the last two Hollyhill books and had fun getting to know Jocie all over again.
I read this series several years ago and really enjoyed them. Jocie was so cute love the part where she had to take the canning jars to the cellar.
Author
Jocie here. Well, Donna, I didn’t love that part. I was really scared of those spiders and snakes. You should have seen me running back up the cellar stairs to get away from them.
Ann now. Thanks for reading my stories, Donna. I like letting Jocie live on here on her blog. And I took that part about taking jars to the cellar right out of my childhood. I hated going to the cellar to get something for Mom.
Do you ever get bored? And what do you do to get out of it? If you lived in this time where everyone has to stay in isolation, what would you do, besides read?
Author
Jocie here. Oh gosh, do I ever get bored sometimes. But I don’t tell Aunt Love that. She’d have me scrubbing walls or washing windows in the blink of an eye. No cure of boredom like a little work, she thinks. Most of the time I can find something to read or take a walk or make up a story to keep from being bored. Or I can go visit Wes and listen to his stories. That’s never boring.
I can’t imagine having to stay home all the time and not go to school or to the newspaper office. That would be awful. So is that what you’re having to do? I guess the reading would be okay, but I don’t have that many books here. I’d need to go to the library or to see Wes to borrow some of his books.