Denise Camille Frye

Look at Liddie Longlegs! Denise Camille Frye

Did you ever wonder what your grandmother was like when she was twelve? Was she pretty? Was she popular in school? Would you want to be her best friend? What if you found her diary, would you read it? Of course, you would! And chances are, you'd discover your grandmother was a whole lot like Liddie Longlegs - witty, pretty (in a tomboy sort of way), and eager to please. She probably had a big family with dozens of cousins, because everybody had big families in 1956, when Elvis Presley was the Justin Beiber of the day, and you could watch his movies at the drive-in theater - bring your own popcorn and watch the show while sitting under the stars! If your grandmother went to Catholic school like Liddie did, she would have gone to Mass every day. She would have learned all the regular stuff like math and geography, but she would have also learned about God and heaven, the saints and the sacraments, and how to be good and holy. She might have wanted to be a nun when she grew up, like the Dominicans who taught Liddie. Or maybe she wanted to be like her favorite saint. St. Therese might have been her favorite, too. All the girls loved St. Therese, the Little Flower. Liddie loved her, too, but even more, Liddie wanted to be St. Therese, or at least, to be like her. Of course, she wouldn't be called Saint Therese, she'd be called St. Lydia, or St. Lydia Longlegs, maybe, because that was partly her name and partly what the kids called her at school. And if you read Lydia's diary like I did, you'd know exactly why.