losing my skirt and Terry Jones

One wintery Michigan afternoon, Alice, Rosemary and I were walking home from Jr High past Henry's Dept Store. It was out of our way but if we didn't go home that way we wouldn't get to see Terry Jones at the corner shoe store. And we HAD to see Terry Jones. He was about 19 years old and looked JUST like Paul McCartney. JUST LIKE HIM! To put it mildly, we were smitten. Silly girls.

I was wearing my cute white sweater, white tights and my cool army green a-line skirt with the industrial-type zipper up the middle of the front of the skirt underneath my maroon, heavy winter coat called a benchwarmer. (These were the days before girls were allowed to wear pants to school.) I wore the skirt often so the zipper wasn't too secure anymore. I usually pinned it at the top with a large safety pin. It was actually an old diaper pin I'd taken from my baby brother's stash. I think it had a chipped yellow duck's head on it. It could have been the chip that did me in.

Noisy teenybopper girls that we were we literally squealed in anticipation of waving to Terry Jones (we always used both names). We were one store down from Terry Jones in front of Henry's Dept Store when my skirt felt funny. I didn't really know how--it just felt funny. I ignored the feeling--after all, we were 30 seconds from the Terry Jones Smile and Wave. We'd stare in the store with big grins on our faces and he'd always smile and wave at us. In spite of our silliness and frequent passes by the store he was always cordial to us.

Back to the skirt--It felt funny. Strange. It felt loose. Then it happened. One more step and it dropped down around my feet. I was mortified. Alice and Rose took a step or two without me while I quickly scooped up my skirt and crammed it on top of my school books. I was in my slip on the highway in the winter!

"C'mon, Suzanne."

"I can't. My skirt fell off."

In unison, "WHAT?"

"MY SKIRT FELL OFF!"

"Where is it?

I lowered my books to show them my skirt shoved into a tight knot. I didn't know what to do. I simply couldn't walk home in my slip even though there were only a few inches showing from the bottom of my coat. (Actually, I could have done exactly that and no one would have been the wiser, but I was 13 and mortified. I NEEDED to make this an emergency!)

We rushed into Henry's like a small gaggle of noisy geese. We found a very proper saleslady and in a panic asked her if I could use the dressing room to put my skirt back on. She was shocked. We wanted to shock her. Most young teen girls want to shock proper ladies.

She said nothing and pointed to the room against the wall. I went in to get re-dressed. It took all of about 2 minutes to repin my chipped, ducky head safety pin securely at the top of my zipper. With a deep sigh of relief I exited the dressing room ready once again for the Terry Jones Smile and Wave. Noisily and in a tight little cluster, we hurried out of the store, laughing and whispering about the poor saleslady's reaction. We loved it.

Twenty feet to the Smile and Wave. We got serious. Grown-up. After all, someone who looks like Paul McCartney isn't going to think we're cute if we're too silly, is he? At the shoe store we looked into the window of the store. He's there.

Sigh. Sigh. Big sigh.

We stared inside and smiled at him.

There it was.

Terry Jones, our Paul McCartney double, SMILED AND WAVED!

It was as good as if Sir Paul had been there himself. We had our prize. The Terry Jones Smile and Wave.

We basked in the glow of the moment and dreamed of what it would be like to smile and wave at the real Paul McCartney. Our minds raced. If Paul really saw us, he'd think we were cute and want to date us and even marry us. We'd be Paul McCartney's girlfriend or wife! Or we'd meet and marry three of the Beatles or at least date them. (All of us? Logic? There was no logic. Only the moment mattered.)

We lingered on that special corner for a few extra minutes just knowing he was in there. Then we crossed the busy street and headed home to dream of the life of a Beatle's girlfriend.

There had been a serious glitch with my wayward skirt that wonderous afternoon, but we overcame it. Together, in concerted effort, we three averted calamity. Our mission for that fateful afternoon was complete.

We had survived to Smile and Wave again.