Whatever nature do, this house do. -LeAlan Jones, 13. "Ghetto Life 101"

It was a rough morning. I woke up to a beautiful snowy day and slowly got dressed. I am now the resident blogger for Salt and needed to report to work pretty early. As I was signing out for the day, I received an email:

“SNOW DAY- NO WORK.”

Well I’ll be damned………a snow day………………and in MAINE?

Wasn’t as pretty as I thought it would be. There was also a snow BAN which means all cars need to be off of the streets (including mine). I trudged out to the Toyota only to find it completely plowed in by walls of white stuff. I had my boots on but suddenly, I could feel snow on my thighs as I stepped through the barricade to open my car door.

Frozen lock…………

Figures.
I borrowed a shovel from a neighbor and started digging. It was enormous; I felt like an ant on Mt. Everest. Where would I put it all? What is snow etiquette? I sure didn’t want it near my car but then again, should I shovel it onto the barricade of another? Forget Miss Manners. I tried to shovel it neatly between the front of my vehicle and the back of the next….but I’m not sure I did such an honorable job.

A big truck drives by and honks. A nice looking guy tips his hat. Next thing I know, he parks off to the side and runs out with a shovel. This dude shoveled more in 3 minutes than I had just done in 45. Definitely seems like the moment to spend time on developing my biceps. He instructed me on pulling out and I did the job (with a bit of smoke and noise from my car….but she made it out OK). What a trip.
But then I had to find parking.

That story is much less exciting but let me just say that it took me another 45 minutes to walk back to my house from the free lot at the local high school. Despite my three layers of socks, these toes were definitely frozen by the time I arrived home. Decided I’m not leaving the house again today. Enough is enough…..and my hot tea is waiting.

But to more substantive matters. Our weekend in Gardiner proved fascinating. As I wrote in my last installment, we were dropped off in this random town near Augusta at around 7:30am last Saturday. We hit the A1 diner and proceeded to peruse the local paper. There was a “Baby Parade” where people’s baby pictures compete against one another. An odd concept in my mind and one I thought we might look into. Vetoed by the rest of the crew. We piled into my car and found Staples Funeral Parlor. Knocked….knocked again….hmmmm…..and again. No answer. From the tire tracks it looked as if someone had left earlier that morning. We hit the road again. Found some funky buildings outside of town but no one was interested in speaking with us. Eventually, we were back on Main Street and I decided to drop in on the local tailor. Originally from NY, Amber told us to head down to Moda Bella, the local dress shop. I thought “a dress shop?” and in Gardiner, Maine? We walked down the street…..feeling somewhat demoralized but at the same time determined to find something.

We walked in and within five minutes we met Miss Maine 2004, 1st runner-up Miss Maine International (whatever that pageant is) 2007 and Mrs. Maine 2005. Mrs. Maine is accompanied by her husband Marty and together they make up “Crown Consulting,” a stylist/etiquette team that prepares young women (as in over 18) for pageants. They ARE the pageant people of Maine.

And what the hell are they doing in GARDINER???

RaeAnne Seubert was determined to find the gown of her life. She tried on six and I felt exhausted by the end.

Too prommy. Too cheap. Too red. Too white. Too virginal. Too…too.

She settled on my personal fave…a cocoa-colored long gown embellished with more silver sequins than I know how to count. Very pageant, in my opinion.
Moda Bella is the dress shop to pageant competitors in Maine. People come from all over the state, even from across the border to sample Diane Tucker’s style. Cannot say I’ve ever seen this type of inventory before…..but then again cannot say I’ve ever competed in a pageant.

Our group got some great pictures, great info, great audio. I recorded Heather (the coach and also Mrs. Maine 2005) explaining how running in pageants was like running on a soccer team.

“Both are sports, both require training. I mean, they definitely need good shoes……so do we!”

Beautiful.

Definitely a fun afternoon and one that left me thinking about the coaches. What do they feel after one of the mentees has won? Or lost? Is this simply about making a living or do they really feel some social/emotional investment in this type of work? You may be scoffing as you read this, but some of the moments in that dress shop really blew me away. I never expected such depth from Mrs. Maine 2005. Guess my own prejudices shine through when it comes to too many sequins and stilettos. Of course, those ladies would tell me there is no such thing.

As for the future, I’m meeting with Superior Sister Mary Catherine at the Blessed Sacrament Convent come a week from tomorrow. I may contact Heather and Marty to discuss their coaching roles and my search for a jump-rope team continues. The maternity home people and child pageant leads remain at-large but I’m on it. A prelim competition for little Miss and little Mr. Sunburst is slated for Feb 24th….and I’ll definitely be there.

For today’s audio doc, I want you to listen to Dave Isay’s “Ghetto Life 101.” It’s a powerful project spearheaded by a man who once envisioned himself an M.D. On the way he fell in love with radio and has been doing it ever since. He is the pioneer behind StoryCorps, something you may listen to on the way to work in the mornings. This particular piece is incredibly moving…..two young boys (one living in a project and the other living down the street) reveal their lives and experiences on the South Side of Chicago.
Take a listen.

http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/ghetto_life_101/