Chamblee54

When PG was a kid, his North Carolina neighbors always brought back Cheerwine with them. In those days, the top forty station in Atlanta was WQXI, 790 on the dial, Quixie in Dixie. The word dysfunctional had not been invented, even if the concept was everywhere.
Forty seven years later, 790 am is a sports talk station. The house with Cheerwine has been replaced by a McMansion. In a book by Mary Kay Andrews, Spring Fever, Cheerwine is called Quixie. It is made by in Pascoe NC. The company is owned by a dysfunctional family.
Spring Fever is another entertaining use of time from Mary Kay Andrews. The plot is catchy, and the characters are people you care about, even if you want to see them dead. Some of the plot turns are a bit tough to believe. When Annajane tells her fiancee that she cheated on him, it turns into a line in a country song. When Mason is about to get married to a horrible woman, his “daughter” saves the day twice. If you can stifle your cynicism, you will have a good time.
Most of the familiar details of a Kathy Trocheck book are here. The gay couple waits until page 254 to renovate the town’s only hotel. Annajane stays there for a while, and sees a few things she could have done without. The florist convention went on without anyone the wiser.
There was one MKA touch missing here. Most of her books have recipes at the end. In Spring Fever, the reader is left wondering how to cook Quixie marinated ham. As one lady said to another, “Tacky is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a word some people use for something they think is in poor taste.” Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.