Emileeeeee stopped celebrating New Year's Eve during her seventeenth year on this earth. That year she turned seventeen was so traumatic it cured her for life of participating in any celebrations. Well, maybe she did briefly in my nineteenth year. For exactly thirty three minutes. Yes, thirty three minutes and no more than that. That is the time it took to jam eleven people into a Mini Austin. It was snowing that night and people did need a ride home. Canadians are good like that.
For approximately four years in High School she loved a boy. He was no ordinary boy. He was 'THE" Golden Boy of Cowansville High School. Blonde, French Canadian and handsome as all get out. When he smiled, you could see the stars glimmer from his teeth and when he walked down the hall girls melted into puddles. Of course Emileeeeee had no chance ever of snaring this magnificent creature as she was about 102 pounds over weight. She smiled, She curled my hair, she used deodorant and he would never ever look her way. She was so huge he probably thought she was a school corridor column and not the girl that loved him.
Emileeeeee left school at age sixteen and went to Fashion Design School and all thoughts of Golden Boy left her head. She worked part time in a fashion store and also lost about a zillion pounds. Emileeeeee now had the wardrobe any Mod in the 60's would die for. That was probably one reason she lost so much weight. It was either food or clothes and the clothes won out hands down.
So New Year's Eve 1968 found her holding an invite to the coolest New Years Eve party around. It was held in the basement of an old A & P store in Granby, Quebec and she knew my old school chums would be there. Emileeeeee was so excited to see them and dressed very carefully. Black velvet "Twiggy" mini dress with a front zipper and white collar. Black fishnets and black patent cuban heel shoes with a big silver buckle on them.
Emileeeeee walked down the stairs slowly and into the make shift teen club. People's mouths dropped and screamed when they saw her. She took off my long black Dr Zhivago style midi coat carefully and slowly walked up to the dance floor in all her glory. She happily danced my feet off to a half dozen Creedance Cleerwater songs until she was a sweaty mess. To cool off, she went outside to get air and of course icicles started forming on her hair from the cold frigid air.
Emileeeeee di not smoke so she to tried to lean against the brick wall seductively while the icicles were quickly multiplying in her hair. Maybe, yes maybe just this once she could snag a guy to dance with me. Emileeeeee prayed silently, "Just this once God, before I die, let me dance with a real boy ".
Through the haze of cigarette smoke clouds and ice fog came this shadow approaching her. He was tall. He was lean and boy was he was blonde. Yes, dear readers it was Golden Boy. Golden Boy in all his glory was approaching me from 30 degrees north.
The icicles in her hair suddenly started to melt. She suddenly became tongue tied as he looked at her and then hugged her. Emileeeeee just couldn't savour this moment she had yearned for as sheI was too busy worrying if she stunk from perspiration.
He spoke. Yes, he spoke. He spoke in a low sexy voice that made the earth shatter and the heavens suddenly opened and my heart was beating on over drive,
"Emileeeeee you look just fabulous!"
Wait, was he talking to someone else? She looked around and saw no one, so yes he was talking to her. More icicles started to melt from her hair.
He grabbed her hand and they went inside where they proceeded to slow dance. She could feel his heart beat and they were so close she could smell his Aqua Velva and his Gitanos. They proceeded to dance the rest of the night away and he rode home with me in the bus holding my hand tightly. The heavy snow had turned to a deadly freezing rain but he insisted on walking her home.
They walked up the short path to her house and up the handmade death defying wobbling concrete steps that were now a skating rink. He took her head in his hands and kissed her. In fact he kissed her a lot. Yes, he kissed her so much he wanted more. Instead of being in lust, angry thoughts suddenly flooded her brain. Thoughts of how badly he had treated her, in the past. Emileeeeee suddenly started to rage that if she wasn't a 100 pounds thinner he wouldn’t be kissing her right now. So Emileeeeee got mad. She got SO mad she pushed him down the icy concrete steps. Yes, the same steps Emileeeeee had fallen down years ago and cracked her head open on. Golden Boy laid there and was knocked out. Knocked out good and cold, like the freezing rain that was coming down quickly. Emileeeeee smiled a sinister smile and called her father to drive him to the hospital. He was fine, except he had one problem. He was having a hard time remembering anything. He had temporary amnesia. For hours he could not remember what had happened to him. He somehow could not remember that he had 'slipped' and "somehow fallen "down the stairs. Everyone blamed the slippery conditions and no one even thought that a former chubby had given her 'all" that night. Yes, she had given her all for every other high school or college girl that had loved a Golden Boy once in her life and was treated badly.
So after that Emileeeeeee never really celebrated New Years Eve. She decided what happened that night was enough for her. You only get once chance sometimes in life, and that was it. So every New Year’s Eve Emileeeeee celebrates with Dick Clark and remembers and when she see's his name on Classmates.com, she smiles. Yes, smile. That same sinister smile the night Golden Boy became not so golden and 'slipped' down the wobbily concrete stairs. Bet after fourty years he isn’t so golden anymore .Frankly I bet he is a tad tarnished.
HAPPY NEW YEARS GOLDEN BOY
lINDA SECCASPINA
COPYRIGHT 2010
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