I have a very good reason why I haven’t blogged and / or posted pictures of my haircut and / or responded to the approximately 721 emails in my inbox:
Twitching yet?
Yeah. Me, too.
But considering that I wasn’t fully caught up on laundry when we went to Memphis week before last, and then I still wasn’t caught up when we left for Mississippi last week, and now that we’re home again just about everything we own is in the dirty clothes pile – well, I have a bit of housework to do.
And.
Yesterday I received one of the very best gifts I have ever received in my whole life, and you may not understand why if you didn’t grow up in the South, but the bottom line is that I now have the 1989-1992 Miss Mississippi pageants on DVD.
If you’re a Southern girl, you probably just squealed a little bit. Because you can recognize what a precious treasure I now have in my possession.
So last night, while D. watched some movie about some people trying to capture some killer, I watched four years’ worth of the Miss Mississippi talent competition. And loved every. single. second.
The announcer’s lead-ins were an unexpected source of entertainment for me as I watched, mainly because of the announcer’s obvious resolve to remain! upbeat! even when a contestant’s talent called for a more sober tone.
For example.
AHEM.
“Losing a love can shatter your dreams! And kill all hope of loving again! Here to portray this torment! With her rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream” from the Broadway musical Les Miserables! Is MISS DIXIELAND!”
And then Miss Dixieland took the stage to movingly sing of the plight of Fantine, a French woman who lost her job, suffered a broken heart, and eventually descended into a life of prostitution in order to care for her daughter.
Miss Dixieland opted to wear an evening gown and rhinestone earrings the size of a small (VERY SHINY!) planet in order to add a little verisimilitude to her interpretation of the song.
Because I think we all know that French peasants from the 1800s loved them some crushed velvet. With a halter neckline.
I’m telling y’all: it’s some pure, Southern-fried entertainment gold. That’s exactly what it is. I just HOOTED. Because even in times of tragedy – whether she’s living it or just singing about it in a cramped municipal auditorium – a Southern woman still wants to look her very best. With her hair JUST LIKE SHE LIKES IT. And accessories. Perhaps even formalwear.
I can’t even tell y’all how happy it made me.
But the phrase “deep and abiding joy” definitely comes to mind.
{ 40 comments }
My whole house seems to accumulate dirty laundry from other planets – it doesn’t just stay in one room – and at least you can shut the door on it! My mom didn’t believe that I seriously could do 2-3 loads of laundry a day until she came and stayed with us for a week – now she knows…
Those DVDs?
Manna from Heaven.
Oh lucky you!
I LOVE watching pageants and have been known to watch my daughter’s state and international tapes over and over. One can’t get enough tap dancing to “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”!
If you ever snag the Miss Arkansas tapes, may I come have a sleep over at your house? I promise to dress appropriately in one of my kidddo’s best tiaras! I will even bring you one! :-D
Uh, do I need to bring a sleeping bag this weekend? :)
I don’t know what people who don’t have a guest room do with their yet-to-be-unpacked suitcases, clean towels that need to be folded, etc etc.
Ha! I need to see me some of that.
Just for clarification- did the rendition bring a tear to your eye, or a chuckle to your lips?
Not sure how serious you southern women take your pageants.
I am thinkin’ a sleep-over would be some much-needed therapy for me! I’ll bring the popcorn! And whoopie pies!
I loved me a good pageant as a child. It is so funny that you are “re-living” the pageant days of the early nineties; I’m sure there is some very entertaining stuff on those DVDs. :-)
I love it!! Okay, since you asked, my talent in the Junior Miss Pageant, I mean competition, was singing the song from Oklahoma “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No.” Which is really funny…because I always said “no,” until I was married if you get my drift :0!!
I think only we southerners can TRULY appreciate pageantry and all that is involved!
I love Les Mis, the musical. And I love pageant talent competitions. Why don’t you head on over to my place. You bring the videos, I’ll get the popcorn!
Being from AR – I can totally understand because we love our Miss Arkansas.
But really – I’m just trying to calculate the bottles of hair spray that were probably used in those pageants because that was the era of the “big hair” and especially in southern pageants in those years – the bigger the better.
Oh, BooMama, you crack me up!!! Please come to my house sometime, and bring that DVD. Bubba & EK can come, too, and we’ll have a sleepover. (Alex can play with Ben.) Miss Dixieland and I are obviously kindred spirits…I sang that very song my senior yr. in my high school showchoir. And don’t think I didn’t wear a blue sequined dress (with spaghetti straps, no less) and some dangly earrings. You know we Southern girls may sing like peasants, but we dare not look like one! Ha!
Um, are you stalling about the hair photos? Because we are still waiting, dirty laundry notwithstanding. You cannot distract us forever, you know, although I never tire of Southern-girl stories.
All I know is that I miss the days of watching contestants twirling batons with bangs that had been baptized and resurrected (as it were) with Rave or AquaNet Hairspray and a teasing comb. And shoulder pads. ‘Cause every good sequined ensemble needed height in the shoulder area for enhanced perspective. And World Peace.
I should stop now, because I’m getting nostaglic, allthesudden.
Um…how was it easier/faster for you to post pics of laundry, than of your hair?? Both would entail taking a photo, uploading it to the computer, and putting it on the blog. Your excuses won’t work my dear! You could have just as easily taken a pic of your hair (or several pics, at all angles/views) and put THOSE on the blog. AND, you could have had those pics already taken and on the camera this whole weekend, thereby eliminating the pesky step of having to take the photo when you got home, which you obviously did with the laundry. Hmph!
I am a jealous wreck over the Miss Mississippi DVD’s. My peak pageant watching days were the 70′s. You were always guaranteed a twirler or two in the Miss Texas pageants and if one of them twirled fire- well that was a bonus.
There was always one contestant that was really there for the scholarship. They would play classical piano or have a really talented dramatic piece from Tennessee Williams. The dramatic ones were always in conflict because ya’ll know you can’t look real pretty and be ‘ol alcoholic Blanche Dubois “living on the kindness of strangers” at the same time.
I’d love to hear Merritt and Wendy doing a little “Marlisa Ball flying higher than an aero-plane” right now!! Glory days on Hathorn Hall!!!!
I understand about all the laundry. My 18 year old Maytag washer died, with a load of clothes and water inside! It was a week before I could do the research and make a decision on what the replaement brand and model should be. Unfortunately, my guest bedrooms are upstairs and all the dirty laundry remained downstairs with us. Oh, did I tell you, while the laundry room was half empty with the old washer being moved out I decided to paint the entire room?
Only in the south, Honey, only in the south will you have those beauty pageants with all the glitter and hoopla!
We the internets, are still waiting for the photos of your new hair do.
How do you do it? Take a completely obscure topic–ok, at least to me—and manage to totally crack me up in the middle of the day?
I love hearing about your trips to Memphis and MS because they take me home! And I’m entirely jealous of your Miss Mississippi pageant dvd! That could keep me occupied for a whole evening. Oh, to be Miss MS. A girl I worked with at the Cracker Barrel in Horn Lake, MS, went on to be Miss Mississippi and had her picture taken at the “Welcome to MS” sign at the stateline. It was a big to-do. :-)
Love ya!
You crack me up. We are so different, yet so… the same.
Jamie
You are a myriad of things Boomama, and totally stinking hilarious is close to the top! I appreciate your posts so much and know somehow this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your talent!
You are the new Erma Bombeck. You are so hilarious!
You paint a funny evening. So cool that you watched your own thing!
Hidden in the mounds of your dirty laundry… I know the feeling.
LOL! I agree…a true Southerner and from a long lineage of one – My Mama always said ‘If all else fails, just try to look cute’
LOL!
Toss me the crush velvet and orbital shiny diamond earrings please :)
Great gift and I did a little gasp as I was reading it….I actually missed the pagaent Saturday night and was sorry I missed the entertainment. It’s a girl thing at our house.
BooMama, THIS is why I read your blog! Yesterday you gave me some food for my soul (that God wanted me to read) and today you made me laugh. : ) Thank you, thank you!!!
I see you are a Ballard tote fan too…I loved that giraffe print carry-all from the moment I received the Spring catalog. Love it. At least your mess is stylish. That’s my philosophy.
Love, Sarah,TN
OH! WHERE DO I GET A COPY???
Did you see Mary Ann Mobley at this year’s reunion? Hmmmmm.
I’m convinced that the reason that I enjoy American Idol so much is its resemblance of a good pageant. ;)
Love that giraffe bag – what sweet person gave that to you? ;-)
I just wanted to add some more twitching…I’m still waiting for “what’s for Dinner?” I like you planning my weekly dinners! :-)
xoxo!
I don’t know which scares me more: the state of your guest room, the fact you are so excited about pagentry tapes, or the fact that all of your blog readers seem to be equally excited. It might impress you to know that not only is Nicole N. my BFF, but I also have a friend who was 1st runner up in the Miss America pagent. Unfortunately Miss America was able to fulfill all her waving and smiling duties so she never got to be the big one.
Boo,
I already knew I liked you. You understand the things of a southern woman and you make me laugh, after all. But that was one impressive word you used there! I had to go look it up while my husband broke it down to its Latin roots giving my son a mini-lecture about how handy it is to know latin in such cases as this. So we had an all around enriching experience at our house tonight! Thanks for that. :-)
Lea Margaret….you ALMOST made me wet my pants!!!!
LOL! I myself have never like watching pageants, but then again, I’ve never watched THAT pageant!!
You just crack me up!!!
YOU–BooMama–are pure, Southern-fried soul food for this northerner’s heart. :)
Oooohhhhh. That DVD is a treasure indeed! I’m VERY envious!
My husband begs me (weekly) to PLEASE free up 2 precious hours on our DVR by deleting the Miss SC pageant from TWO years ago. I just can’t bear to part!
The talent portion cheers me up when I’m havin’ a tough day. It’s over the top & reminds me of an SNL skit…w/ a horrible production value, of course. Classic!
I’ve even been known to subject our guests to a few selections from the “train wreck” that IS the talent section. (I’m QUITE the host!)
What a hoot! I had no idea you could even get those on DVD!
The offer for a copy of More Culinary Kudzu still stands whenever you get ready for it!
OH MY!! I’m not from the South but just reading your post makes me wish I were!
Laundry? What laundry?
All I see is a shopping bag from my FAVORITE store (WS) and a ROCKIN’ giraffe-print tote.
Your house is a STYLISH mess.
We MUST be sisters………
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