When I was a teenager, our local Top-40 radio station in the Tri-Cities sponsored a Miss Go-Go contest at the end of the summer. Back then, being Miss Go-Go didn't have a lurid connotation; it simply meant that we wore go-go boots and short skirts.
All summer long I exercised frantically, even wrapping myself in Saran Wrap to help sweat/burn off pounds, and maintained a minimalist diet so that I could be as slim as possible in hopes of winning the title of Miss Go-Go.
The evening of the competition finally came. "Bouncing" Bobby Keith was the radio personality who swooped in on his motorcycle and up onto the stage wearing a mysterious cape at the drive-in movie theatre to announce the finalists and the winner.
Despite my best and most diligent efforts all summer long, I won not first place, but Runner-up Miss Go-Go. My friends teased me mercilessly. But worse than being Runner-up Miss Go-Go was the prize I won.
The prize for Runner-up Miss Go-Go was 100 McDonald's hamburgers! They were 15-cents back then. Whoopee!!! All my dieting and then to be rewarded with 100 McDonald's hamburgers for my efforts.
One young woman from Pasco, Dacia Ramirez, 19, took a stand for modesty this week in the Miss Tri-Cities Pageant. She declined to participate in the swimsuit competition, because she felt that the swimwear was too revealing and she would not be comfortable with herself to parade around in front of other people wearing it. She also questioned what role the swimsuit competition has in a so-called scholarship pageant. Good for her!
As a consequence of Dacia's decision, she was asked by pageant officials to sign a waiver acknowledging that she would not be given any consideration as a potential finalist. Despite having to forfeit the potential top prize, she won Miss Congeniality, $850 in gifts, and the admiration and respect of many of the other young women, which is worth a lot more than 100 McDonald's 15-cent hamburgers.
7 comments:
Beauty pageants are an anachronism that ought to be dispensed with. There are competitive prizes based on talent and intellect. They are called scholarships.
I'm with you Stephanie. Being hung-up on body image to get somewhere is a terrible lesson for young women to soak in.
Brains and good work ethics...independence and self-responsibility...confidence minus the self-serving diva attitude...now THAT'S a sexy and beautiful image that will last way beyond your teens and twenties. That's the secret to being comfortable in your own skin for a lifetime...the best prize ever!
I must add, however, that I LOVE the picture in this post. It's a classic. Jaynie, if you ever write an autobiography this has to be the cover. What a wonderful snapshot in time!
Thanks, Stephanie. That 'get-up' (as my mother would refer to it) was my typical attempt via attire to adopt the 'Mod Look' during the British Invasion, i.e. the Beatles.
The car shown was my first car. It came with quite a history of its own. It was a '53 Ford 'ragtop' Sunliner with forest green leather interior and white convertible top.
I bought the car from my first boyfriend, Jamie, for $150.00 when he was drafted and sent to Vietnam as a medic. I later sold it to my girlfriend Vickie. She later sold it back to Jamie when he returned to the US, and I eventually bought it back from him again for another $150.00. Jamie also referred to the car as the "LGT" (Little Green Thing) because it was pastel green and he thought calling it the "LGT" made it sound more impressive than just a ragtop. He also called it the "raggedy top." I didn't like that term. I loved that car! I still have a fantasy that it may yet be on the road somewhere. It purred along so beautifully, I can't imagine that it ever quit.
We had great fun in the summertime in the Tri-Cities' sunshine in that car. All of my girlfriends would pile into the car and we would go and 'drag the gut' for hours on end just having fun in the sun, listening to music, singing along, and talking. None of us ever did drugs or alcohol. We were definitely of the 'girls just wanna have fun' mode during summers in Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland.
I was also going to mention that at that time (mid-'60s) when we were in high school, our school bus driver worked after school hours at a gas station. Leo, the school bus driver, was so handsome, and all of us girls adored him. So, we would stop by the service station where he worked and put in just 1 gallon of gas at a time. Gas was 39-cents a gallon.
Then off we would go and drive around for an hour or more around town on the 39-cents-worth of gas, then that would give us an excuse to go back to the gas station and see Leo again to purchase another 39-cents-worth of gas.
Great car and story, Jaynie. Did Jamie survive the war?
Yes, Stephanie, Jamie returned from Vietnam unscathed. Ironically, our paths and career tracks have criss-crossed over the years as he went into television and I went into radio.
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