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During my senior year of high school, I won a national competition with Sonic Industries (yes, the girl who will no longer eat fast food was the National Carhop of the Year for Sonic Drive-In). I served as a sort-of spokesperson for them for 19 months. I also appeared in a few national television commercials (one with Frankie Avalon--I know, most people have never even heard of him! He's in the movie Grease). He came to my hometown, so I got to travel with him and watch women who are my mom's age and much older ask him for his autograph in the airport. On our way to KY, we stopped to eat at Jack's Barbeque on Trinity Lane, and he gave them a signed picture of himself that now hangs on the wall there. When my parents came to visit me last year, they grabbed something to eat at Jack's and noticed that Frankie's picture was there. They mentioned it to me, and I said, "I was there the day he gave it to them!" We drove for an hour through rural KY on Hwy 431 before we reached Russellville, and I can remember him saying he couldn't think of any time in his life that he had driven so far out into the country. He had a negative attitude about everything, which was a real eye-opener for me. I quickly became disillusioned with being famous and a lot less enamored with famous people. I also discovered that film (even a 60-second commercial) takes FOREVER to make and it's all a game of HURRY UP and WAIT. We had to be up at 4:00 a.m. and we worked until dark. I worked with some hilarous actors and had a lot of fun, but I definitely wouldn't want to do it for a living.The thing I took away from that whole experience (of traveling, doing commercials, being flown all over the place for speaking engagements and photo shoots, etc.) is that doing things alone--even if they're exciting--are a lot less fun than when you're with someone you love. Reminiscing is one of life's greatest pleasures. I have more fun talking about mundane things I did with my girlfriend Lisa than talking about the so-called exciting things I did with Sonic because Lisa and I took the mundane and made it silly and now have some great shared experiences. When we reminisce together, we laugh so hard we nearly cry.
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Another random, interesting tidbit: When I was 12, I won the KY state championship for squirrel rifle shooting. I had recently returned from Camp Curry where I learned, among other things, to shoot a gun. I guess I had a natural talent for it because I competed in a shoot at the lake near our house and they sent my target to the state competition and I won. I like to say it's the only sport I was ever good at since I only had one good eye.
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Speaking of one good eye, I have terrible depth-perception. As a result, I have totaled multiple cars (most of them during my first couple years of driving). Since then, I have learned to compensate for it and for several years now, I haven't had an accident while driving. On a related note, when I was a kid, I tried playing T-ball, but I couldn't hit the ball off the T. That was also before I got glasses. Now I can throw a ball in the air and hit it with a bat. Judah is terribly impressed.
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When I was in middle school and high school, I participated in writing competitions. I remember being the only one on the academic team whose parent was not a teacher. I thought for sure that I wouldn't make it to the state competitions because of that, but I made it! In college, I won a couple writing scholarships and academic scholarships, so most of my books and tuition were covered during my 4 1/2 year stint at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. I enjoyed several of my professors as well as getting together with other writers on a regular basis. I also enjoyed the jobs I had as a result of my scholarships. I gave campus tours through the admissions office and worked on a literary journal with some fabulous writers.
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In high school, I worked my electives around speech and drama. I managed to take one class each year and was the only freshman enrolled in Speech I. That's where I met my best friend from high school, Carole. We went on speech competitions together (those competitions were some of the highlights of my high school career).
Carole was a junior, but she didn't ignore me
just because I was a freshman. She also introduced me to her (very pretty) girlfriends, which made me feel like a rockstar. Years later, we're still friends. She even came to see me in the last play I was in. Would you believe her daughter is now the same age we were when we met? AND . . . she's going to be a grandmother in September. Her husband is 11 years older than she is, and he has two kids from a previous marriage. Her step-daughter is pregnant, so my friend Carole from high school is about to become a GRANDMOTHER. Nuts. Here's a picture of us from the night of the play (hence, the abundance of make-up).***
And now it's time to finish the laundry. I enjoyed the treck down memory lane. Thanks, Shyla!
1 comment:
found it! You did speech competitions in high school. I knew I wasn't that crazy.
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