TheBanyanTree: Life Stories 154

[Laura]

I was a year younger than my compatriots when I entered high school.  I had 
skipped" a grade as a youngster.  Fortunately, I am from a large family, and
I was no smaller than any of my classmates.  In fact, until I entered high
school, I was always the second tallest girl in my class.  I never had any
trouble because of my age difference, in fact, my friends were always
surprised to find out I was so much younger.  Eighteen months difference (in
some cases) can be a big difference sometimes.
 
Most of my friends had been wearing make-up for two or three years by the
time we reached high school (9th grade).  I had not.  It always seemed a
royal waste of time to me.  I would much rather sleep that extra half-hour
than spend it doing my hair and painting my face.  So I slept in, only took
five minutes to brush and braid my hair, and came to school bare faced. 
None of my guy friends, or boy friends for that matter, seemed to notice or
care, so I never really thought about it much.
 
Until my best friend at the time gave me the lecture.  The one about how I
was not ever going to get married, even though I had a boy friend who had
already asked me to marry him, and how I looked like a "butch dike lesbian"
because I never wore make up, and I always wore jeans and tee shirts.  
 
So I decided I would try some make up the next day.  I "borrowed" my Mom's
mascara, and bought some sheer pink lipgloss, and applied them hesitantly to
my already long, thick, black eyelashes and my already perfectly shaped pink
lips.  I thought I looked ridiculous, like a clown, but if that's what
society demanded of me, I would give it a try.
 
I kept getting weird looks from my friends on the bus, but no one actually
said anything to me.  I thought all was going well.  We got off the bus and
tromped into the school enmass.  Before we could all get down the hall,
Robert S. started shouting, "Shelton's wearing false eyelashes!  Y'all come
look!  Shelton's wearing false eyelashes!  I thing she's a drag queen!!"  I
was stunned.  "False eyelashes"?  "Drag queen"?  I ran into the bathroom
(never a good idea at my school, you were very likely to get beaten up) and
looked in the mirror.  He was right.  I looked like a drag queen with my
thick, black eyebrows and the huge, long eyelashes.  I grabbed a wad of
toilet paper and started scraping off the mascara.  I pulled out several
eyelashes too, but I didn't care.  The mascara had to go.  While I was at it
 I wiped off the lip gloss too.
 
I've never worn them again.  Hardly ever.
 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Tobie Shapiro
Date: 02/17/07 11:20:56
To: The Banyan Tree
Subject: TheBanyanTree: Life Stories 154
 
On this first day of the high
eighth grade, all the girls were sitting at their
desks with a fresh application of waxy colour on
their lips.  The boys were looking around and
taking it all in.  At this age, the girls are
considerably ahead of the boys, so we must have
scared them, excited them, made them miserable.
Dickie Seymour turned around, took one look at
me, and said, "Oh, Nooooooo!"
 
  The first chance I got, I wiped off the
lipstick and never wore it again.  Hardly ever.