To Be A Lady

At some point my Mother decided I should change my “tomboy” ways and be more lady like. I was then hauled off to town and enrolled in dance lessons. You have to understand I had just spent the first 7 or 8 years of my life running around barefoot on the creek, so it was a challenge for me to be thrown in to this new world. The main focus was on “tap”, which I really enjoyed tho I’m sure I drove my parents crazy when I put on my tap shoes to “shuffle and step” my way across the old linoleum floor in our kitchen. The teacher thought I should also be in tumbling class as it would teach me balance or something and “loosen me up”. So, like a good little girl I did what I was told. We had to learn the proper way to do cartwheels, and summersaults, and other strange moves. We had to link up with a partner, then somehow grasp each other’s ankles and arms, and while twisted all together, tumble across the floor.

I couldn’t have been in class very long when it came time for the first recital… My performance debut was to do “the tumble” in pairs across the stage. I had to wear an outfit that had glitter all over it; I remember it being very itchy.

On the day of the much-anticipated recital, the woman who drove us to school and picked us up was waiting outside when school was over. About 5 of us kids climbed in her car for the delivery home. and when we got to Billy’s house she said she needed to go inside and talk to his Mother for just a minute and we were supposed to wait on her. It was Billy’s idea that we all get out and go see his horse while the mothers were inside talking which sounded like a great idea to me. We all jumped out of the car and run over to the corral and before you know it, I was up on the fence and found a way to get on old Chief - bareback of course.

I prodded him around the corral, and was getting along fine, when all of a sudden here came their dog…. he got right under the horse, yipping and yapping. “Chief” got nervous and started bucking. I hung on for dear life as long as I could, but eventually, over I went…… I’m not sure which part of me hit first but it hurt so bad I knew I was going to die. Billy and the other kids run over and jerked me up and started brushing all the tell tail signs of dirt off me. I just remember it hurt so bad, but I also knew if I told anyone I’d get in a lot of trouble. Somehow I got back to the car and in the back seat about the time our driver came out and was ready to take the rest of us home. She was none the wiser to what had transpired while she was inside visiting.

As the last to be dropped off, when I walked in the house Mom could see the scratches and bruises and I told her I fell off the swing at school. At that point I’m sure Mom wondered if the tomboy could ever be hidden enough to let the lady emerge. We had to be to the dance recital in just a couple of hours so there wasn’t much said other than a large sigh and “we’ll just put some makeup over those bruises”. There was no way I was going to tell anyone how bad I was hurting or how it really happened, I just had to figure out a way to tumble across that stage in all my glitter. I still remember the pain when the moment came that I had to get into position. I did it though. And lived through it.

There were other recitals and other dance performances and then our teacher retired and closed her studio and I didn’t have to go back. There were also other attempts at lessening the tomboy image…Mom made me pretty dresses on the sewing machine, I was given piano lessons, when older I joined “rainbow girls”, I had “slumber parties”,  learned how to cross my legs at the ankles, get in and out of a car properly, and, I was taught how to walk and dance in high heels gracefully.

There is still so much more to my efforts  towards becoming a lady, but in all honesty I think I’m still working on it.   I can still out fish a lot of men I know, and though it takes me a little longer I can still shimmy up a tree, and it still feels good to get grease on me now and then..... :)