Okay, I admit it. I love being on the stage! Always did ,always will.Ever since I was little ,I’d dramatize anything ,even the Tom and Betty books we had in primary as a reading series. And if you don’t think this was hard, here’s a sample. See Tom. See Betty. See Susan. See Flip. You get the picture. I’d sing at the drop of a hat even though I couldn’t carry a note to the store! (A fault I blamed on bad tonsils!) I didn’t care.
My first real experience was in grade two. I did an individual ” piece “on the local music and speech festival. I came in second, but I was hooked.
In grade five I wrote a play based on the nursery rhyme “The Queen Of Hearts” Guess who played the queen. The teacher let me do it for the classes and my classmates and I had a great time doing it.
Mamma said.”Go ahead, make a fool of yourself.” I did . And I continued to do plays and things from Junior high and on through university.
Whenever I would tell Mamma ,she’d say,”There she goes making a fool of herself again!” Yes, and I loved every minute of it!
You see the prime directive in our family was not to embarass the family. You weren’t supposed to draw attention to youself. Well early on I thought this was bullshit and did it anyway.
In grade nine I lived with my sister in another province. She was very ill after her first child and I was sent to help her out. I got the lead in a school play called “The Bad Children” a spoof on Hansel and Gretel. It was in the provincial drama festival, and I won best actress. I was so proud of myself and when I called Mamma to tell her she said,”Don’t tell me you’re making a fool of yourself in New Brunswick?” Yeah, I was! I was being a provincial fool. She told no one!
When I had my own kids I encouraged them to try out for anything they wanted to on stage. They both loved it . My daughter really shone in that area and I was so proud of her! I saw pretty much everything she did!
When I was going through a bad patch in my life I tried out for and got the role of the wicked witch of the west in the local college production of “The wizard of Oz.” The paper said I was pure evil. I was so proud because I was!
Mamma would have had a shitfit because I was 43 at the time. I loved it!
Now I am 55 and we have pub nites at our little firehall. Two friends and I do a little skit thing with characters we invented called Blanche, Marg and Flo the ho. We have a ball doing it and we pick on everybody in the community. People come to see who we are going to pick on next! By the way mamma’s name was Blanche and Marg was her best friend. We have fun doing it and our patrons love it.
Yes Mamma ,right again! We make them laugh, so I guess you could honestly say,”There she goes ,making a fool of herself again!”
And a damn fine fool you are!
We love Blanche,Marge and flo…you really miss them at the pub nights when they don’t show up.I read this and think of the irony of your mom blanche being up on stage for the whole world to see …man would you be in deep dog doo if momma was alive today and you on that stage using her name….but as you say what would the world be if there was no fools to make us laugh!