Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Hula Hoops, Go-Go Boots & Weeks at the Beach



Birthdays.
Aging.
Dancing.
Laughing.
Remembering.
Living.
Loving.
Learning.
Nana's in town, I am a teen-ager & she's turning 80.
We've been shopping and for her birthday, she bought herself some white thigh-high boots to match the black ones I'd worn to Van Halen the night before. She had also purchased a Cross-Your-Heart underwire bra. Her new boots, like mine, were 'our secret.'
I always kept mine folded over & scrunched down until I left the house. She kept hers hidden in the trunk of the car. Popdaddy, her hubby & my Grand-father, had already shunned both of us for the bra, proclaiming that it took what belonged around her waist & launched it into two pads creating what he called 'torpedos.' The boots would be too much for him to bear.
Fixing her curly blonde hair, she asked what my Saturday night plans were, as I watched her milky blue eyes dance in the mirror. "I don't know, probably just hang out, maybe, with the guys."
The guys ... my friends, my purely platonic band of about 5 boyfriends, young men that I spent every available hour with over the previous 5 years.
Nana always encouraged me to date, date one of them or at least kiss them. 'Don't dive in' she'd say,'but get your toes wet...kissing is too much fun & it doesn't have to mean too much. Kiss them. Find one that kisses good & kiss him again.' I never did, they're my friends & most of them I still keep up with, probably because I didn't.
Anyway, she went on to say 'Let's all go out together ...me, you & the guys,for my birthday. I'd love to be surrounded by a bunch of young, fit bachelors for my birthday.' I knew she couldn't wait to wear her new bra & boots.
I laughed & called the guys.
Flamingo Joe's was a local watering hole that would serve me. So at about 7, we piled into the car and drove around the corner. We stopped. She & I both jumped out, giggling like the girls we were. She put on her new boots & I re-arranged mine. The guys were cracking up.
At Flamingo Joes, we ordered muchies & cocktails, plugged quarters into the jukebox and commenced to celebrating Nana, torpedo ta-ta's, go-go boots & all.
Nana stole a sip of my Week-at-the-Beach & loved it much better than her usual...Vodka/OJ or whiskey on the rocks. The name tickled her & brought back fond memories, as we always tried to spend a week at the beach together each summer.
Week-at-the-Beach... The name. The drink. The times. She loved it all & her love was infectious.
Entranced by alcohol & her contagious spirit, she had the guys orbitting around her every word & every move. They were in her world now.
She told them about our last week at the beach. She told them about how she hoped that I had snuck out to attend a bonfire party. I didn't. She said I needed more balls. She said I had cupid lips, kissable lips, lips like Scarlett O'Hara, lips that needed to be kissed & often. Emarassed slightly, I laughingly said 'Nana, maybe you should have Sex-on-the-Beach!'
Eyes on fire & no trace of a blushing, 'Oh I would Love that! That's wonderful! You all should do that at least once!' I think it was Brian who said "Let's do it!' and ordered a round of Sex-0n-the-Beach for the birthday party.
Now, if the name WEEK-at-the-Beach entertained her...you can only imagine what SEX-on-the-Beach did. The stories flowed as quick as the booze.
Before you knew it we were drinking shots of all kinds...buttery nipples, slippery nipples, even screaming orgasms, and then later flaming orgasms. Sugary-sweet alcohol based reminders of 80 years. Eighty years of love & lust, patience & pain, commitment & timing, believing & doing, sacrifice & sanctity, family, friends, fruition...eighty years of living, loving & learning. Wisdom shared between sugar sweet sips, knowing glances & moments on the dancefloor.
She was the world.
Her eyes, her words, her spirit, her very being nurtured us, kept us pulled in close to her, urged us to grasp life with all ten fingers and a smile, encouraged us to embrace our youth & look forward to aging.
Suddenly, 'A Hula-Hoop! Owwhh, I love Hula Hoops' squealed out of Nana just as our server zoomed by. The server, called back over her shoulder. 'Yes, we're going to have a hula-hoop contest!' Nana was dancing in her seat.
The server went to the make-shift stage with her arms weighed down by hula-hoops & the bartender turned DJ, announced for folks to come to the front & ease her burden. He said, 'When the music starts, go! Last one spinning wins 25 bucks off their tab tonight!'
Needless to say Nana was the first one up there ... Laughing, spinning, clapping her hands, winking, blowing kisses & loving every minute of it...now the whole bar was part of her world. Men ran up, a little late in the game, to join her in the hula-hoop showdown. Everyone was entranced, entertained & inspired.
When she finally returned to the table, she had her 25 dollar gift certificate.
Undoubtedly, we knew that all her words were true, we knew all her thoughts were precious, all of her actions to be admired and one day perhaps , we, too, could have a week-at-the-beach with hula hoops, go-go boots & torpedo ta-ta's.
Embrace the day & age with gusto.

10 comments:

singleton said...

Ahhh, you're killing me here...taking me spinning to a rainy Saturday morning, early, before the crew was up, on the downtown streets of Tallahassee...shopping for my first, and not my last, SEE-THROUGH SHIRT...it was yellow, as pale as your skin, and once snuggled tiny at the bottom of our designer shopping bag, we were off to find the BRA that would be shown off underneath it! I was immediately Nancy Sinatra....with the brown "Micro" skirt, not mini, and the go-go boots...And those boots were made for walking. We snuck the packages upstairs, practiced putting on my face in the mirror, yanked the crab-net, not fish net, everyone wore "those" hose out of the other bag, threw on winter coats....Hit Jacks drive-through for a toddy, and....
God, she was a remarkable soul! She taught us everything she was afraid we would learn somewhere else, and not half as well, so best from her! She taught us to chin up like a man, twist like a woman, and live like there's no tomorrow. She taught us, no showed us, we just learned it from her, that BEAUTIFUL is as BEAUTIFUL does! And that takes balls!

vicci said...

Oh...I ADORE this!!!!! I wish I was there with you and the guys and your Nana.....I had a "Nan-Nan"!
What delightful....wonderful...precious......FUN!!!! I love the pic...I got a hula hoop pic also...I'll try to find it! LOve this soooo much! TORPEDOS!!!!!

Me said...

That was a truly touching and inspiring story about a super dooper cool granny!

Anonymous said...

Arianna and I could not read fast enough~ We loved your story. What a great lady! Wow we know know where you girls get some of your spunk...

Anonymous said...

OOPS! What i ment to say was " we know where you get some of your spunk" LOL

skinnylittleblonde said...

LOL, Lotus, I understood & I agree!
I am sure Nana got it from her mother & her mothers' mother!

Even when life, as we know it, ends...the love still grows! I'll never stop loving her & will always pass that great love on ... she was a very wise woman.

ps-You & Arianna may also get a kick out of previous post on 'String Bikini & Words of Wisdom.' It is another Nana story...one that inspires me to this day.

Thanks for coming to My World!

me and the other me said...

wow, what a nana. my grandma made me wear a hairnet at the kitchen table and the only time i heard of her dancing was when my grandpa came home drunk early in their marriage. it's said she "danced a frying pan 'round his head". it was the last dance for either of them, unfortunately.
what a great story. you girls should write a book together!

Anonymous said...

Hmm...psycho-therapist is right you girls can really write! You have an amazing ability to express yourselves...tell a story and leave nothing out. When you tell your stories I feel like im there. I see the picture you paint with your words so intertaining so interesting. I think there is a few books in SLB and SAS... I started to read your blogs psycho-therapist you also have a way with words and sound like a wonderful beautiful person. I am new to this whole computer world. Don't know too much about it but im learning by trial and error...a click here a click there real hands on LOL:) I really enjoy this meeting of the minds so to speak. I can only hope nothing gets Lost in Translation...

skinnylittleblonde said...

Psychotherapist ~ so glad to see you out & about again! I'll have to bop over to 'your world.' I hope you dance, dance, dance! Sometimes it's like a sigh and sometimes like a scream...but its always a great release. Personally, I have no rythym. But I just close my eyes & let it go!

Lotus~ Nothing is lost! In fact, you write wonderfully & I am hoping that you too, will blog! Top right corner "Get Your Own Blog" then click, click, click! Your words are always so inspiring...you should share them with the world!

Sister Mary Lisa said...

And now the whole blog scene is a part of her world. She sounds like an awesome woman to have known. Lucky you.