{"id":551,"date":"2017-11-02T21:57:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T01:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=551"},"modified":"2017-11-02T21:59:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T01:59:26","slug":"my-second-date-wheres-that-glass-slipper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=551","title":{"rendered":"MY SECOND DATE\u2014WHERE\u2019S THAT GLASS SLIPPER?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction,\u00a0 and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction.\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Go back to the spring of 1961 and read how Faye Junkins became Cinderella at the ball on her second date.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So in the late fifties I went off to Berry College, a woman of experience (Not!), having one date under my belt.\u00a0 I was shy\u2014especially around boys\u2014and social events were misery for me.\u00a0 Mostly, I avoided the parties and teas whenever possible.\u00a0 It probably was a good thing in the long run, because with my patchwork schooling up to that point, I was totally unprepared for college.\u00a0 If I hadn\u2019t studied diligently, I would have had a very difficult time passing my classes.\u00a0 Gradually I made friends with the girls in the dorm, on my job as a waitress in the Berry dining Hall, and a few male classmates.\u00a0 I even had a couple of opportunities to date, but I wasn\u2019t ready, so I turned them down with no regret.\u00a0 But by the time I was a senior, I was ready for a change.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Marriage still wasn\u2019t in my hopes or plans.\u00a0 I envisioned an independent future in which I supported myself and didn\u2019t have to answer to anyone (Good luck on that!).\u00a0 But why not do more with whatever looks I had?\u00a0 And, if the right guy showed up, why not date?\u00a0 By this time my Aunt Hilde Junkins had become aware of how I girdled my bosom down to a smaller size and bought me two Bali bras in 36D, and said, \u201cDon\u2019t be an idiot, Faye.\u00a0 Hiding your assets is getting you nowhere.\u201d\u00a0 I felt conspicuous for the first several days with my early Dolly Parton chest, but the relief of escaping the confines of 34B soon won me over.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By January of my senior year I had decided I was going to the Senior Prom (I think it was actually called Senior Dance or something similar, but it was THE PROM to me).\u00a0 And (here was the hard part) I was going to have a date, doggone it!\u00a0 I had learned by this time that it was considered acceptable for a senior girl to invite a lower class man to be her date.\u00a0 I looked over the available guys, trying to find a possibility.\u00a0 It had to be someone who was taller than me (that eliminated quite a few) and it had to be someone who didn\u2019t have a steady girlfriend already. I also wanted him to be handsome.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Soon I had him selected.\u00a0 I\u2019ll call the young man\u00a0 \u201cTom.\u201d A junior, he was the best-looking boy on campus, yet as far as I knew he had never had a steady girlfriend.\u00a0 Next was the hard part\u2014I had to ask him to be my date.\u00a0 I rehearsed fifty different ways, but none seemed satisfactory.\u00a0 He and I had a speaking acquaintance, so several times I worked up to the verge of the big request, only to chicken out at the last moment.\u00a0 At last, I accidentally ran up on him right in front of Memorial Chapel and on impulse just asked.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be honored,\u201d\u00a0 he replied.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Relief!\u00a0 Gratitude!\u00a0 Jubilation! Life is good!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The next problem was what to wear.\u00a0 I had money saved from working as a babysitter and sometimes as a maid for faculty members.\u00a0 Not enough to buy a readymade gown, but it was enough to buy fabric.\u00a0 I bought white brocade and a dress pattern.\u00a0\u00a0 Mama turned me down when I asked her to make it (I barely knew how to operate a sewing machine at that time, but she knew a woman who sewed for the public, so I hired her).\u00a0 In the meantime, I started giving up desserts and those wonderful Berry yeast rolls so I could maybe have a real waist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My sister promised to put my hair up in a \u201cFrench Twist\u201d for the event, and I began experimenting with make-up.\u00a0 Jean also agreed to let me borrow her long white gloves.\u00a0 That was in addition to teaching me a little about how to dance!\u00a0 She probably got permanent toe damage for her efforts.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Finally, I was ready.\u00a0 The night of the prom, I felt like Cinderella.\u00a0 Tom arrived in a white jacket and bringing a corsage.\u00a0 We even danced a little.\u00a0 All evening he was charming and attentive, though I felt sure he had no romantic feelings, and in the few weeks left \u2019til graduation, I didn\u2019t flirt with him\u2014I didn\u2019t learn to flirt until well after Berry.\u00a0 So one date was all it was. But still, down through the years I have remembered Tom with gratitude and affection.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t just the best looking boy at Berry\u2014he was also the best!\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And, Tom, if you read this,\u00a0 you\u2019re still Prince Charming to me!\"IMG_0989\"<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction,\u00a0 and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction.\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon. \u00a0 Go back to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}