Megan McCafferty

This is supposed to be (retro)photo Friday #1

Friday, January 8th, 2010

But as you can see* the picture didn’t upload properly. The World’s Greatest Webmaster has been trying to fix it all week. (Apparently it’s a WordPress problem, not a MegMessedUp problem, as is often the case when it comes to things technological.) So the general idea is that I’ll upload random pictures from my youth and write a little about them. I think I’ll do this on Fridays because I like the alliterative flow of the words (retro)photo Fridays and also because I hope I’ll get enough writing done on BUMPED at the end of each work week that I’ll be able to take time out to do this without feeling like I’m screwing myself priority-wise.

So this is me at eight years old, tap dancing my heart out in my final recital for Miss Nonie’s School of Dance which I attended for four years even though I wasn’t very graceful or flexible. My only misgiving about dropping out of Miss Nonie’s School of Dance to take voice lessons was that I wouldn’t have a socially acceptable excuse for tarting-up like an underage can can dancer anymore. Believe me, I’m grossed out by the objectification of little girls on Toddlers & Tiaras and the like. But a tiny part of me sort of understands the appeal of getting all glitzed and glammmed because I LOVED this costume. LOVE LOVE LOVED it. I loved the green sequined bustle, I loved the pink marabou feather trim, I loved the pink satinesque top hat and silver shoes and THE WHOLE TACKY SPLENDOR of it. Seriously, if I could have worn this costume to school every day I would have, though my mom most certainly would have made me wear a turtleneck underneath as she always did with all my Halloween costumes but that’s another post for another day. One big difference (and there are MANY) between me and the Painted Babies and Living Dolls  (or then and now) is that these recitals weren’t about trying to be sexy (I didn’t know what that word even was at eight years old) it was all about SHOWBIZ. And I loved every sparkly, shuffle-ball-changing second I was on stage. If I sucked, I certainly didn’t know it.

I mean, just look at the saucy angle of my top hat.

*You can see this photo in all its sparkly glory, here. I hope this issue will be resolved by next week.

Tags: (retro)photo Friday, 1981