Monkee Mania ✓

Magnolia Simms (Mike)

It was a dark and stormy night, September 1st, 1960. That's when I first saw her. She had such warm eyes. I was almost eighteen years old. She was beautiful, and she could cook magnificently. She had all the boys in our neighborhood chasing after her the first week she moved in. She introduced herself as Yolie, a name not common to this part of Texas.

Her name just intrigued the boys further. They just showed up on her doorstep, begging for apple pie, her delicious apple pie. When she put it on on the window it was always gone before it cooled off. She enchanted me from the moment her eyes met mine, though I'm sure I didn't even cross her mind.

I followed her around everywhere she went, like all the other boys. I got lost in the crowd on several occasions so she didn't even know I was there. She did a very good job of ignoring her entourage, her unwanted entourage, for the most part.

When winter came, all the others stopped standing outside her house. Everyone but me, that is. I came no matter the weather. One day she walked outside to get the mail. “I thought everyone had left for the year. It's too cold to be standing out here. Won't you come in?” she asked.

“Sure. I mean, thank you ma'am,” I said.

She smiled at me and I felt like dying. I could die now, because I was just so happy. I had accomplished all my goals, one of which was getting Yolie to smile at me, me and just me.

She opened the door and let me through. I didn't feel much like a gentleman at that point, but she didn't seem to mind. “Let's sit in the kitchen,” she said. I pulled a chair out for her, to be more like a gentleman to her, not because I needed to, but because I wanted to. “Thank you,” she said.

“You're welcome, Yolie,” I said her name in a state of awe.

She laughed and I realized her laughter was musical. “I just noticed I don't even know your name.”

“Michael, but you can call me Mike. Everyone else does,” I said.

“Well, Mike, it's very nice to meet you.” I could tell she genuinely meant that and it made me very happy. I gave her one of my rare smiles.

I left her house shortly after that, but I came back the next day and the next. I came by her house everyday and she always let me in and we talked. One day I brought my guitar and a song I had written for her. “I have a song I wrote for you and I would like to play it now, if you'd let me,” I said.

“Of course. What is it called?” she asked.

“Magnolia Simms. It's only called that because everyone I showed it to told me to change your name so no one would know who the song was really for.”

“Oh. Well, play on then.”

“Love to me is blue-eyed and blonde.

Oh, that's sweet Magnolia.

Apple pie on the window still warm.

That's my sweet Magnolia

Walking under a sky that's so blue

After rain has fallen.

When she's walking so close by my side

My troubles seem to just run and hide.

[la-dee, da-dum, etc.]

Well, walking under a sky that's so blue

After rain has fallen.

When she's walking so close by my side

My troubles seem to just run and hide.

Magnolia Simms is my little doll.

I can't live without her.

For if she goes my world will just fall.

Stay with me, Magnolia.

[Sound of record skipping]

Stay with me, Magnolia,” I sang to her.

She leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I will always stay with you, Michael,” she whispered in my ear.