How to Look Good - Anytime!
This is a little story about feeling good about your looks. Please stick with me, gang. It has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Do you recall the days when girls had to make their First Communion in the Church in frilly little white Shirley Temple dresses? I don't know which was more important - the frills or the white. But brother, it had to be white.
Well, those long-ago days were sheer Hell for us tall girls. It was almost impossible for tall girls to find dresses that didn't look like a blouses! In fact, almost all age-appropriate clothing made us feel gawky, goofy and boyish. Nowdays, thank goodness, there are stylish, sleek, longer communion dresses available for taller girls.
However, this wasn't the case when I was a kid. So my mother and I went from discount store to discount store looking for one of those lacy little monstrosities. I wept and wailed in the fitting rooms, as the dresses seemed to get shorter, lacier and more idiotic-looking. Had I not been so distressed, I would have sung a chorus of "On the Good Ship Lollypop."
Finally, my mother dragged me home and threw me at my dad. "I give up!"
My dad calmly put me in the car again, and took me to one of the finer womens' shops. I had never been in one before.
He quietly selected a smashing Audrey Hepburn/Jackie Kennedy outfit. It was a very sophisticated sleeveless linen sheath, with a matching light double-breasted coat. Best of all, it was a subtle pink. Pink, as in not white.
We bought shoes and a bag and (get this) a Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat!
The total effect was beautifully appropriate for my height and figure. It was gorgeous - I wish I had it now! That outfit was my initiation into young womanhood. In a single afternoon, I'd left behind forever my gawky, goofy boyishness. The time was right for me, even if it wasn't right for my peers.
As happy as I was, my father's audacity scared me. I was certain that the nuns were going to kill someone - me, my parents, our pets. Someone, I was certain, was going to die.
The great day came, and I felt lovely in my sleek, glamorous outfit, among the tiny girls in their little white dresses. Oh - and no one died.
Immediately after the ceremony, my dad asked, "Did you learn anything today?"
I thought he was quizzing me about my Communion, so I began talking about it.
He said, "No, no. Your dress. Did you learn anything?"
I said, "Well, no."
He said, "Always remember this. Just because you don't look like everybody else, doesn't mean you're not beautiful."