A Day in the Life
October 5-11, 2015
Long ago talent show
By Becca Bona
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, I was in a talent show.
This happened to come up recently on a family vacation. As it always does on the Gulf, it rained the last few days and we were forced indoors.
JB was humming a tune while the rest of us watched TV. We were snoozing through daytime shows, but she just kept right on with her song. Eventually, the rest of us caught on, remembering it from somewhere. That’s when MB started in with the story.
Well, dear reader, sit back and put on your imagination caps – as my second grade teacher used to say – as we travel back to ‘96.
That year, for some reason, the usual school flyer announcing “Talent Show” caught my best friend’s attention. She came waving it under my nose one day at lunch, and, after much coaxing, she and I went to work. We knew we weren’t coordinated enough to make up a dance routine or sophisticated enough to tell jokes. In fact, probably the only thing we could do successfully was sing, as we used to sing loudly anywhere we happened to be – the tree house, the living room, our classroom. That last one resulted in a lot of shushing from our teacher.
Regardless, we spent a few weeks coming up with some first rate lyrics to sing in front of the judges for tryouts. If, for some reason, I was forced to share those words in this column I would forever be embarrassed … so use your imagination.
We more shouted the melody to the beat than sang it, but we were pretty proud of our progress. Then the big day came – tryouts – and MB had even gotten off work to come witness our performance.
ZC (my best friend) showed up early and sat down next to me on one of those long, cafeteria tables. Our name was toward the end of the list, and we had to wait. When it was almost time, she looked at me when a sickly green face and said, “Becca, I don’t think I’m cut out for this stage business.” And like that, she was off before I could say another word.
To this day, our friendship is still intact, although at the time I was a little more than upset. Truly, if I had any sense, I would have followed her. MB, with a concerned look on her face, told me I didn’t have to sing it by myself.
But I had made up my mind.
I took the stage and squeaked my song. Next thing I knew, I’d been told I made it through. Even better than that, the school music teacher asked if she could put some piano chords to my song. Thank goodness – less a cappella squawking from me.
I may or may not have won second place later on at the actual show, a tiny second grader with a
yellow bow in her hair standing next to the fifth and sixth grade first and third place winners. I think they gave me a trophy, although who knows where it is now.
This is what I learned from that experience, dear reader. 1) If you write a cheesy song with your best friend in the second grade for a talent show, your family will never let you live it down. 2) Yellow bows will take you far in life.
And that concludes our tale from long ago.
Don’t ever stop singing.
Becca Bona is the managing editor of the Daily Record and an award winning columnist and photographer. Contact her at Becca@dailydata.com.