The summer after my junior year at a boarding high school, I was thrilled to be traveling South through Texas and then Mexico with the school ensemble. For me it was a dream come true.
One of our stops in Texas was the Scofield Memorial Church in Dallas. It was by far the largest church we sang in, and we were excited that the program would be televised. Before we went to sing, the girls all filed into the bathroom. I was having trouble with my dress, which was made of very thin material and was full of static. It looked horrible and felt even worse. I had had this problem before and knew what to do. I took off my half slip (back in the days when women actually wore slips) and meant to get it a little damp in the sink, but before I realized what I was doing, I had stuck the whole thing under running water and completely soaked it! Well, I couldn’t go on without a slip, so I wrung it out the best I could and put it back on. I looked in the mirror and the wet slip wasn’t that noticeable. Whew! The only problem was we had to sit in the pew before it was time to sing. When I sat down on the wet slip. . . You can imagine! I was mortified. I pleaded with the person that was to walk up behind me to please stay really close so that no one would see my wet skirt. I just hoped and prayed that it wouldn’t be noticeable and for sure not on TV! If you ever need to get rid of static, just soak your clothes. It works every time!
After the service, when fortunately my dress had dried, we had a pizza lunch with the youth pastor. Most of us were doing our best to make conversation and use our manners. I was answering the pastor’s questions and telling him that I had been born on the mission field when I looked over at Jon, one of the guys from our group, and he was beat red with his napkin over his mouth. “What is the matter?” Every one stopped and waited for his response as he swallowed his pizza and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know about you, but I was born in a hospital!” he almost shouted and once again going into fits of laughter. So much for us acting civilized!
A few minutes later Maria, another girl in the ensemble, was telling a story about something that happened in a volleyball game. We liked to tease her about how much she used her hands when she talked. This time with pizza in hand she said, “I went like THIS!” and accidentally sent the half-eaten slice of pizza sailing. It hit the youth pastor right in the chest and then fell on his plate! “Oops. Sorry,” she said and grabbed her pizza, placing in back on her own plate. All of us then lost all the composure we had left. To his credit, the man was very kind. I guess maybe he was used to groups of silly teenagers. That’s the last thing I remember of our stay at Scofield Memorial Church.
I had forgotten that! Thanks for reminding me! Believe it or not, I married a man that talks with his hands even more than I do. 🙂
OH MY…talk about such a long time ago! I better get back on that treadmill…LOL. And, you cut off Nate? 🙂
I’ll have to remember that handy soaking tip!! haha! Who knew!! LOL Just got back from liking your facebook page back! Thanks for doing Mom Loop Follow!
Oh my gosh – ALL of those things are hilarious! Sounds like it was just a comedy hanging out with your ensemble!
I would have been mortified at the skirt thing too!
Thanks for linking up!
It does seem like a lot of women never wear a slip anymore. I still wear a slip most of the time. Did you give them up or do you still wear them?
In my defense, I was the youngest of the group by far. And in fairness, I still find it funny. I agree that this showed my maturity. Grin. I remember one of our teachers saying, “Children think literally.” And I probably do to this day. As someone much younger than me observed even this past week, “Tú tienes la corazón de un niño. Es bien.”
Thank you for making me feel like part of that group. It was a new experience for me and not just because it was my first time around civilized folk.
I agree it was a dream come true. The whole experience was life defining, life changing. I spent 3 years on the road with with the 3 of the coolest groups of people that I could have imagined.
Also in fairness…it is not a dream that I ever knew I could have dreamt. My perspective and world views would be forever changed by the next two weeks we spent in Mexico. To this day, whenever someone asks how I learned Spanish, I reference some effect that the next two weeks must have had on me as we traveled through Mexico with my Spanish teacher and friends after my first year of Spanish. It was life defining on so many levels.
Whenever I walk with my children down the road I still reference the time Ester was upset because the boys in the group (or just me) were not walking on the proper/traffic facing side of the sidewalk. Something that had undoubtedly been done by her father as she walked down a crowded street many times before. Lesson learned. Grin. Thank you for being a part of the many life defining moments “literally” of my life.
Jon