When you are a young person (from my perspective “young” means under forty), at some point you realize you have younger selves.
Like me!
Or me.
And I feel very fortunate to have you both.
Strange as it may sound to readers of this blog, 9 and Lily exist in my everyday consciousness.
You’d certainly have a hard time writing a weekly blog without us.
I agree, Lily. And, as it happens, another younger self crossed my path this past week.
Is she going to live with us, too?
I’m not sure, 9, but it seems she’s just passing through. She’s a bit older than you, Lily, fifteen going on sixteen as the song goes.
Did she play Liesl in “The Sound of Music”?
Nothing that grand, but posh-sounding in its way. Mom, for whatever reason, decided I needed to spend four months of Saturdays trekking over to Seattle to attend the John Robert Powers School of Finishing and Modeling. She said it would be good for my hoped-for acting career. She might have had a point when you consider a few of their high-profile alumni: Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lucille Ball and Lauren Bacall.
Wow! I’m just a kid and even I know who all of them are!
A pity they don’t list some stage actresses. Movies are so passé.
I agree with you, Lily, but most people would probably find live theater passé compared to movies.
Let’s circle back to this week’s visitation.
Were you possessed?
No, but I was definitely surprised. Unlike with you and Lily, I do not think of my time at John Robert Powers in my everyday consciousness, though I just now noticed my December 20, 1975 diploma from them on the office bookshelf:
Younger Selves: They have their achievements, too!
What on earth did they do to you to achieve their “two-fold” purpose?
Brace yourself, Lily. First, I had my waist-length hair cut into a bob.
Your hair? You mean my hair!
Also, I switched from mini skirts and dresses to the more fashionable midi skirts and dresses. We were taught how to care for our skin and tastefully apply makeup, how to walk and stand gracefully, including some practice on a runway.
I had no idea there was so much to consider when selecting clothes, aside from thinking something either looked cute on me or it didn’t. We were required to make scrapbooks using pictures cut from magazines to document the lines and designs of necklines, sleeves, bodices, etc., and how different orientations of stripes could either flatter a figure or yield it unattractive.
That was fairly interesting information, but what’s stayed with me all these decades are the guidelines for budgeting and assembling a basic wardrobe. A basic coat, suit, dress, all of them in neutral colors. A two-piece- –
What’s that?
A dress, possibly sleeveless, with a matching jacket that you might wear to something like a wedding. A basic “after five” aka cocktail dress- –
When you were fifteen going on sixteen?
Some of the students were adults, so considering the entire student population it made sense.
Weird. What made you think about all of this now?
Good question, 9! A few weeks ago I joined a Wednesday walking group. We meet at 7 AM and do a 3.6 mile walk, looping up from Mill Creek, over the reservoir at Lake Bennington, and back down to where we started. I’m meeting lots of new women, but I tend to walk faster than most and usually end up talking to just one person. We learn a lot about each other in the shy hour it takes to complete the loop. This week, when my walking companion and I were sharing where we’d worked in the past, she mentioned she’d managed a modelling school in Seattle.
Which one? I asked.
You guessed it: John Robert Powers School of Finishing and Modelling on Sixth Avenue! Right across the street from Fredericks & Nelson. (Sadly, for me anyway, F & N is now Nordstrom’s flagship store.)
Right away I started telling her everything about my experiences there, including the name of our teacher (who is still a friend of hers), and how all of us students would dash across the street to F & N during our break to buy bangle bracelets and scarves to accessorize our evolving “basic” looks.
I don’t mean to sound critical, but we don’t typically do “girly” things like that.
No, and we still don’t, not much anyway. It was a situational descent into the world of girly-ness. Think of it as a survival skill.
I’m still not happy about your haircut adventure.
I’ll admit it was quite an adjustment. The upside is I no longer had to sleep on those little pink sponge curlers every other night.
Is a bob like how Mom cut our hair when we were little?
In theory, 9, but this time, since it was done by an actual stylist, the bangs came out even.
You had bangs? How childish.
They were long-ish and I usually brushed them to one side. Let me scrounge up some pictures from the photo session with a professional photographer, part of the class:
Younger Selves: They might even have a contact sheet from a photo shoot!
Hmm. Not bad, I guess, but that does not look like my idea of a basic dress.
Call it newly-turned sixteen-year-old’s version of “after five.”
Younger selves. They live their lives, do what they have to do. Looking back at this episode makes me appreciate how my younger self rose to the challenge- -put in the energy, did the homework- – for something she didn’t particularly want to do but which, surprisingly, continues to pay off in mysterious ways.
