babysitting for the go-go dancer

I baby-sat for a go-go dancer's three kids when I was a young girl. I think her name was Tina and her husband's name was Rick. One Saturday afternoon, Rick was driving around the neighborhood and saw a group of us young girls on the street. He stopped and asked if anyone wanted to baby sit that night. I jumped at the chance to earn $1 an hour and quickly said yes. THEN, I asked my mother.

I didn't know this guy from Adam so I had to do a lot of fast talking with a lot of wheedling and begging thrown in, but my mother finally gave in. I was to be at their house on the next street at 6:30pm. When I arrived at the big, roomy, old house, Rick let me in. He was all dressed up in a jacket and tie. He smelled strongly of aftershave and his hair was slicked back in a smarmy, Elvis kind of way. He showed me around the house and told me a little about the kids. The oldest was about 8, the middle one about 5 and the baby was 3 years old. The kids, already in their pajamas, paid no attention to me whatsoever and continued to eat their Spaghettios at the kitchen table.

Tina was in the bedroom getting all dolled up for work and after about 20 minutes of sitting on the worn, green couch, making inane small talk with Rick about the kids, she breezed out into the living room to wow us with her sparkles and fringe. Her hair was a long, straight, and blonde wig. Her heavily made up eyes were works of art with bright blue eye shadow, heavy liner and false eyelashes. The sleeveless mini dress she wore was all silver fringe and she wore short white go-go boots to complete the outfit. I had never seen anyone dressed so spectacularly before in my whole life. She was gorgeous!

I couldn't keep my eyes off her as she gave me a few last minute instructions for the children. Soon it was time for them to leave and Rick gallantly held the front door open for her. He hurried down the steps to the passenger side of the huge, old station wagon and and helped her in, closing the door securely. She was precious cargo.

The little one started to fuss because his mama was leaving, so I picked him up still awestruck at what I'd just seen. Holding the baby on my thirteen-year-old hip, I stood at the open front door and watched the red tail lights all the way down the street as Rick and Tina, the beautiful people, rode off into the glamorous, Saturday night world of bright lights in small town, Michigan show business.