A Star is Born

Recently I had to complete a "Sister Spotlight" paper for Relief Society. It was in form of questions and one of them was "what is your most embarrassing moment" and another, "funny childhood moment". Well I sincerely could write forever about both, but decided to combine the two so they wouldn't have to do a Sister Spotlight "book". I decided my story made a good blog post because...well because my well seems to have run dry and I need material. The events are as I recall and my Mother may have her own version. There's also a possibility, knowing myself as I do, it's probably been embellished in my mind over time. Anyhoo, here goes... - one of this days I'll get a scanner and post actual pics about the events I describe.

My most embarrassing childhood moment was actually beyond embarrasing for my Mom. When I was 9 years old we lived in St. George. My Dad had opened a motorcycle shop of his own and we lived down the street, across from a park, well it was actually a cemetary but we kids didn't really notice the difference (good grief). Signs were posted around town about the upcoming big Kawanis Club talent show and I decided to enter, without permission. It didn't occur to me that entering a talent show should most likely involve some sort of talent & costume, and probably hours of practice. So the day of the show arrived and I informed my mother about it knowing she would be so thrilled and would want to come watch me. As I mentioned, I had no talent whatsover but had learned a simple tap dance when I was 5 years old to the music, The Candy Man, by Sammy Davis Jr. I didn't have the music so searched every store in town to find it, to no avail. However, as luck would have it, I found an old Bobby Goldsboro record in the garage and decided the song Little Green Apples. *UPDATE - I remember now, the song was "Sal and Sally" (Sal and Sally bought a house in the valley...super slow.......) was close enough. The fact that it was a fairly slow ballad apparently didn't concern me. So the night came, my Mom sat in the audience (thank goodness for my Father's sake he had to work) and the show began. The girl before me had this beautiful white professional dance costume complete with fishnet stockings and a beautiful ballet routine. Then came me. I clomped on stage in my white patten leather church shoes with tacks stuck in the bottom for taps- since I didn't have any tap shoes that fit me any longer, brown terry cloth shorts and t-shirt that probably said "groovy" or something uniquely profound. The music came on and I did a mega-slow version of my Candy Man tap dance routine repeating the pattern over and over again (shuffle step. shuffle hop step. pretend to lick giant lollipop, repeat pattern) while the record played on and on and on (it was like a 5 minute song and my dance...about 30 seconds). At one point I looked at my mom who was surely beaming with pride, surprisingly sitting hunched in her seat her hands covering her face and a scarf draped over her head (overcome with emotion I imagine). I finished my "tap" solo to the rousing sounds of ...crickets chirping. Needless to say I was banned from entering contests without my mother's prior knowlege. I would love to say it was the last time I embarrassed my mother this way, but alas, some people never learn. Good times. Good times.