The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

The telephone is introduced in Fentress, and Callie thinks that society is on the brink of change. The telephone is to be placed in the newspaper’s building due to its proximity to the cotton gin and its significance within the community. Callie’s grandfather is excited because he personally knows Alexander Graham Bell and has stock in his company. Callie is excited to learn that the telephone company is hiring a young woman to work as the phone operator; whoever is hired will be paid 10 dollars a week along with receiving room and board; this is entirely unheard of, and Callie desperately wants the job. She asks Harry if she could pass as a 17-year-old, and he laughs at her.

On the day that the telephone company is hiring, dozens of women from several towns line up to be interviewed. The telephone company hires Maggie Medlin, the sister of one of Callie’s “annoying” classmates. When the telephone is finally ready to be used, the town celebrates by holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony and gathering around to listen to the mayor speak with a senator in Austin over the phone for the first time. Standing with her grandfather, Callie watches all of this happen in wonder and awe. Granddaddy tells her that she should remember this day, for the “old century is dying” (208). The photographer from Lockhart, Mr. Hofacket, takes a photo of the group. Callie notices that everyone in the photo is wearing solemn faces except for her grandfather, who wears a large smile.

One Saturday morning, Callie’s mother stops her as she gets ready to go to the river with her grandfather. Her mother is worried that Callie is falling behind other young women in learning the “essentials” of homemaking. Her mother asks her how she plans to feed her family when she gets older, and Callie states that Viola can cook for her family too. Her mother reluctantly lets her go, but Callie can tell that the conversation is not over. One day, Callie’s teacher tells the class that each student must enter their stitching work in the Fentress Fair. Callie’s mother later asks to check her work and asks if Callie is proud of what she has created. When Callie states that she’s not, her mother asks why she doesn’t make work she can be proud of, and Callie says that sewing is boring. Her mother lectures her on the importance of learning to sew, but Callie becomes lost in her own thoughts. Callie’s mother tells Callie to show her the stitch work that she does every night.

After dinner one evening, Callie overhears her parents speaking about her in the parlor. They discuss their concern for Callie’s future, and she realizes that she doesn’t really have any agency in her life; she is expected to care for her household, not her experiments. Callie begins to cry softly, and her youngest brother J. B. finds her standing against the wall. He wordlessly hugs her and asks if she is sick; she tells him that she might be. They go back to Callie’s room together and speak about their grandfather for a while. J. B. tells Callie that their grandfather scares him. He wishes Callie a good night and tells her not to be sick.

Callie’s time slowly becomes filled with domestic tasks. As she is sitting in her room reading A Tale of Two Cities, her mother calls her down to the kitchen to receive cooking lessons. Mother tells Callie that they will be making apple pie. Callie’s reluctance makes both Viola and Callie’s mother uncomfortable, but they coax her to try nonetheless. After multiple failed attempts and much resistance, Viola helps Callie place and crimp the edges of the top crust, adding a letter C for Callie, and places the pie in the oven.

At dinner that evening, Mother instructs Callie to serve slices of her pie to the members of her family, telling them that Callie made the pie. J. B. asks if he can learn how to make pie, and Mother says that one day he will have a wife to bake him pies, so he doesn’t have to learn. Callie has a difficult time serving the pie, breaking the crust and scoping up the filling, but her family smiles at her appreciatively. Callie is saddened to see that the project she worked on all afternoon is gone within minutes.

Granddaddy calls Callie downstairs one evening to taste the results of their pecan whiskey experiment. After they find the jar, Granddaddy states that the results look promising since there is very little sediment left inside. He smells it and asks Callie to do the same. She tells him that she doesn’t want to drink it because of what happened last time, and he tells her to only smell it. Callie observes that the whiskey smells like pecan pie, and Granddaddy raises a toast to Callie’s health before drinking the whiskey. Granddaddy states that he has done an amazing thing by turning perfectly good pecans into “something approximating cat piss” (233), and Callie is bewildered by his words. Callie writes his observation in the log, and Granddaddy corrects her spelling.

By October, Callie and Granddaddy have yet to hear anything from the Smithsonian about their plant, and Callie has learned more about cooking than she would have liked. In October, Callie and three of her brothers have birthdays. All the children are excited until their mother tells them that this year they will have a large, joint birthday party instead of individual ones. The children protest, but their mother stands her ground. On the first Saturday in October, the Tate family holds one of the largest parties that the county has ever seen. All the children from the town have been invited to celebrate.

Much to Callie’s dismay, Sam Houston, Travis, and Lamar circulate around Lula; Lula’s mother is glad of this fact, for she hopes to marry Lula off to one of the Tate brothers. Eventually, Callie pulls Lula away. Lula asks if Callie is sick because she has consistently been in a bad mood. Callie admits that she doesn’t like doing the things that other girls do and tells Lula that she might want to go to University. Lula seems confused by this idea, so Callie changes the subject. At the end of the week, Granddaddy’s present to the children arrives in a crate from Austin: a gorgeous parrot named Polly. The entire family is shocked and unsure of what to do with the bird; Polly screeches and sings loud, lewd sea shanties. They place Polly in a corner of the parlor, but when she tells one of the guests to “bugger off,” Calpurnia’s mother demands that Polly be sent away. Luckily, Mr. O’Flanagan, the assistant manager of the cotton gin, loves birds. The pair makes a happy couple, and Polly is missed by nobody in the Tate house.

Harry is invited to dinner with Fern Spitty, one of the young women that he spoke to at the collective birthday party. Fern “came out” in Lockhart as part of a group of five young women from wealthy families. She is from Lockhart, but she is staying in Fentress with her cousins, one of whom is Lula. The next morning, Callie interrogates Lula about what happened at dinner between Harry and Fern. Lula reveals that Fern and Harry had spent time alone on the porch unchaperoned. Callie tells Lula that three of her brothers have a crush on her, and Lula is surprised and embarrassed. She demands to know who, and Callie reluctantly admits that it is Lamar, Sam Houston, and Travis; she says that if she were Lula, she’d definitely pick Travis. Callie makes Lula swear not to tell anyone that Callie told her about her brothers’ feelings.

That evening, Callie approaches Harry as he is writing a letter and asks him if he has ever kissed a girl. Surprised, Harry admits that he has, but he refuses to say whom. Harry asks why she is asking about this, insisting that she must have a boy that she likes. Callie becomes upset, demanding to know why she is required to get married; she admits that she has other aspirations, and she asks Harry if he would support her if she wanted to be a scientist. Reluctant, Harry says that he will always help her but that she needs to speak with their parents about this matter. He tells her to go away so he can finish his letter, and Callie leaves with no resolution or promise from Harry.

Callie joins the rest of her brothers and grandfather on the porch, and she sits beside Granddaddy, thinking deeply. Granddaddy asks her why he hasn’t seen much of her lately, and she explains that she has been forced to learn domestic tasks. Callie quietly asks her grandfather if women can be scientists too, and her grandfather is shocked by the question. He apologizes to Callie, stating that he has been ignorant, and he begins to name many influential women throughout the world of science, such as Kovalevsky and Anning. Callie absorbs this information and wonders why nobody ever told her about these women before, but she goes to bed feeling vindicated, knowing that she is not alone in this world.