Story Behind The Story - 2008

Almost exactly four years ago, just after Rebel Housewife Rules came out, I had a Big Day, which I told you all about: The Story Behind The Story, resulting in a feature article about The Rebel Housewife Rules in the Atlanta Journal Constitution: Metro Housewife is a Rebel With a Cause, which was very cool, although the link is no longer active on AJC.com (bummer). I still have the article and will eventually put it into the Archives.

Here I thought I had lapsed quietly into relative anonymity, after all the hoop-la with the book and subsequently escaping the crazy Buckhead lifestyle in 2005...I've been blogging and reviewing and occasionally writing for local media, here and there, busy-busy with family and life and now the New Project, with Zip 30306 - Community Guide. And yet, this morning after running carpool, I came home to two emails and a phone message, sent before 7am this morning, from a local radio station wanting an interview in response to my comments in the AJC today...oh, it's not that scandalous! It all comes down to the housewife thing, again. I am the housewife source for my AJC writer-friend, which is cool (again), and he asked me to watch and react to a new show last week on Bravo: The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Interesting...

As far as housewives of Atlanta go, the show doesn't portray us in any way, nor any of the 'housewives' I know, except for maybe one NFL wife I knew up in Buckhead, and she wasn't that bad. It's a "hot ghetto mess" as one comment went (I wish I had come up with that one!), and a horrible portrayal of wives and motherhood -- all centered on a group of black women, the black elite way up Outside The Perimeter (what we usually refer to as the "country" up there outside of I285). These women are certainly in an entirely different world unto themselves, where children and husbands barely even register in their fabulous self-absorbed lives and activities. No, those are not the REAL housewives of Atlanta, as diverse and fabulous as we are -- black, white and everything else -- that is not us. Pure "reality" TV entertainment, which is fine.

I was surprised to hear from the radio station. I was even more surprised to pick up a copy of the paper today, to see MY FACE on the front cover, in a teaser title at the top of the front page (In Living: MEET THE REAL WIVES - TV SHOW RILES ATLANTA WOMEN), and then on the front page of the Living Section: Reality Check. Crass materialism of Bravo series offends Atlanta's really real wives. And there's a picture of me and our 8yo ADHD Phenom: "Sherri Caldwell of Atlanta, with her son Tiger, says she won't watch anymore." And quotes in the article, too! Cool, indeed -- 8yo ADHD Phenom certainly thinks so!

I will now lapse into my relative anonymity once again, selling advertising and community interest features for Zip 30306 - Community Guide. Should anyone be interested in a signed copy of The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!, however, please send me an email and we'll make arrangements (or send a check for $15, payable to The Rebel Housewife: P.O. Box 8971, Atlanta, GA 31106) -- I have some copies on hand from the Decatur Book Festival. No need to order online and pay shipping!

Live, Love & Laugh all you REAL housewives and other Rebels out there!! ;-)