MOSTLY MAMA

Remember Preposterous Papa (1959 -- you probably won't), the schemes, the dreams, the funny bits, the fits? This will probably share the same dim rose path, but it's humorous (helped a little, one suspects, by the author's inventive memory) and warm enough for the open ranges of Oklahoma. Mama was a Texas Levy, born to wealth and tradition, who married an itinerant Oklahoma rapscallion and proceeded to love him come rain or come schlock. Especially when it came to merchandise in his general store -- he bought six thousand collarless shirts ""and all the same color, a muddy yellow some people call 'puce.' . . . Twenty years later people were still using these shirts as diapers, dust cloths, bandanas, or sashes. . . and they wore like iron."" But they were not as iron as Mama's will, especially when it came to the tradition of the local Shakespearean Club or help for the Salvation Army which awarded her the ""Citizen of the Year"" medal and pronounced her ""the perfect example of a good Christian woman"" . . . ""Papa spat."" But she was a true transplant and she has heart, if not memorability.