Those Girls!

It was l928 and the nation was about to take a nosedive.  In spite of feverish activity on Wall Street, tremors were being felt on the east coast, but had yet to signal their presence in Pine, Oregon, population 300 or so.  It would be a year before Pine and two of its most dedicated, self-appointed, town-surveillant residents, “Those Girls”, would be touched by the Great Depression and precipitate life-changing events.  Meantime, life goes on........

It’s still the era of horse and buggy for small communites such as Pine, Oregon,   “Those Girls”, Allyson Brown, 8 and Evelyn Wynton, 9, are Yin and Yang, Opposites by nature, they are attracted to each other like metal to a magnet.  They are of identical stature, with slim, wiry frames; both flaxen-haired tow-heads with the short l920's Buster Brown bobs and bangs.  Seen from the rear, even Jose, Evvie’s mother, and Jessie, Ally’s mother, failed to distinguish between them.  Viewed from the front they were immediately recognizable.  Evvie’s face was longer with a winsome pointed chin and luminous grey eyes.   Ally had a round face with high cheekbones and bright brown eyes.  Evvie was of a questioning nature, challenging most everything presented to her.  She was blunt and could be disrespectful, but you knew where you stood with her; she could also be funny when it pleased her.  Ally was sunny-natured, quick to smile and laugh; a non-judgmental personality, always ready to go and do at the drop of a hat.

You seldom saw one without the other.  They had appointed themselves guardians and overseers of their small town of Pine.  They took it upon themselves to patrol the town, if not every day, then several times a week.  Their main focus, but not their only interest, was the three blocks of Main Street, because they liked action.

A unique mental telepathy  existed between them.  You might call it ESP....some unusual channel of understanding flowed between them.  Their minds merged.  They had x-ray eyes and sonar ears, seeing and hearing everything.  If Mr. Deakins, the butcher smiled in a certain way at one of his single customers, they noted it; if he left his thumb on the scales when weighing meat for Winnie, the town scold, they knew and approved.

Supremely confident in their ability to solve every problem they encounter, and using their own singular methods of manipulating people and events, they have a habit of producing sometimes startling results: a sizzling marcel hair treatment for Ally’s four year old cousin results in a  case of  vapors for her mother, Thelma; a matchmaking episode between their visually challenged maiden-lady friend, Nettie, and her deaf-as-a-post bachelor neighbor, Bruce, would be a marriage made in heaven, right?  Wrong. 

Surprising their nearly-unclothed preacher and his similarly nearly-unclothed organist, planning a “total immersion” baptism catches their fancy.  They decide to approach the preacher’s wife and schedule the same “total ‘mersion babtism” rite for themselves.

Without even trying they become involved in an elopement  between feuding families, then unknowingly expose a favorite uncle’s double double-entry bookkeeping methods at the local bank.

Through it all Ally and Evvie never lose their aplomb, or doubt for a minute that they’ve done the right thing.  Their instincts are correct.........but, oh my.