MAD ABOUT CONTESTS!

MAD ABOUT CONTESTS!

When I was six, 

I won a prize at a Birthday Party,

for balancing a potato on my head

and walking around a coffee table

more times than anyone else.

I guess that must’ve started it,

because at 7, I earned a Victory Badge!

I remember collecting newspapers

in a little red wagon,

flattened tin cans with a hammer,

peeled the tinfoil off discarded Lucky Strike packs.

I picked them up by the curb
 near the street car stop.

I saved toothpaste tubes

tinfoil from Juicy Fruit chewing gum wrappers,
 forming it into my tinfoil ball
to turn to my teacher.

They were all “for the war effort.”

And even bacon grease!

Yes, Grandma would pour bacon grease into an old

Eight O’Clock coffee can

and I’d carefully walk the block

to the little grocery store at the corner,

where the “meat man” would weigh it

and write “OK” on greasy piece of butcher paper
to turn into my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Sterling Price.

(I see that three girls wore their
 Victory badges for the school photo, 1944.)

~ ~ ~

When I was  10 or 11, 

I got a child’s form of a pool playing game,

 a wooden carrom board with mesh pockets on the corners. 

The beautiful wooden board sat on a wooden stand.

 It came with red and green round flat
 wooden carroms.

that slid smoothly across the board.

I would beg Grandma to play with me.

I can see her claw-like nails flicking

the “toy” or “shooter” carrom, 

claiming it broke her nails.

I played by myself mostly and got so good

I entered a Carrom Contest at our Grammar School

and came home with a shiny satin blue ribbon.

I pinned it up on the beaverboard walls. 

Being a winner felt good.

It made up for a lot of sadness

and feeling like I was never going

to be anybody, unless I did it myself.

It led me to practice and practice and practice 

hitting a tennis ball off my clapboard house.

and winning a lot of Tennis tournaments.

~ ~

That led me to instigate my girl friend and I to

form a singing duo

try out for Stars Of Tomorrow on the

newly formed amateur show on WSB-TV.

“Don’t call us, we’ll call you,” they said.

They never did. 

But that didn’t stop me from trying.

Even when I was pregnant and past due, 

with nothing to do but wait,
 I went out to win a prize

for a WAGA radio announcer contest.

I took buses from Decatur to W. P’tree,
 in early June, pregnant “as all get out,”

as we said back in the 50’s.
I didn't win that either!

My latest Contest Venture came this year,
from having insomnia at 3 a.m. 

and tuning into the BBC radio.

Hearing about a MY WORLD 2" Film Competition .

Films were judged from each continent.

My World of Silent Dreams! - my entry

made the Short List and BBC is still showing it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/2010/02/100223_chips_myworld.shtml

Now, I’ve entered the “Be a Walk-On on Mad Men” Contest

 (AMC-tv 60’s ad-biz series)

I call myself “Revlon Client.”

I took this photo with a camera remote,
 in natural light

with false eyelashes,
 peacock feathers,

a white chaise lounge
 and a fake fur coat.

~ ~ ~

When I reflect on all these adventures,

I know why I wrote the best song I ever wrote

Hold On To Your Dreams!

and wrote these lyrics

And if you are not a great exception yourself,

Well, then be a small one, at least,

That your efforts may inspire others, as well.

And don't run and hide,

If they seem to be denied.

AT LEAST YOU KNOW YOU TRIED! . . .

No . . . It’s not winning the contest, 

It’s the JOURNEY . . .

stay tuned . . .

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