Pageant
Overview Choosing Miss Mississippi
Until
last week, the beauty pageants I’ve enjoyed attending were
non-existent. It’s true, I’ve attended one pageant in which I was
pleased with the decision of the judges, but previously, it would be difficult
for me to characterize a beauty pageant as an enjoyable experience. The Miss
Mississippi pageant in Vicksburg, MS, last week, has changed my thinking
and given me a new perspective on beauty pageants.
My niece, Felicia Brown, my sister’s daughter, represented Pontotoc
in the recent statewide pageant. Felicia, Sarah, and Barbara drove to Vicksburg
a week early in order for Felicia to be at the Convention Center by seven
o’clock Sunday morning, June 20th. Felicia’s twenty
outfits left only enough storage space in Barbara’s car for one bag
apiece for Barbara and Sarah. I offered to help by bringing the rest of their
bags, the next night.
I was unfamiliar with the strict rules and schedules required of the contestants.
Contestants reside in a dormitory and are not allowed cell phones the entire
week of the pageant. Each contestant is chaperoned twenty-four hours a day.
Once family members say goodbye on Sunday morning, contestants have only
limited contact with family members the rest of the week. Security is provided
by the Vicksburg Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff Department.
A series of autograph parties during the week afford family members an
opportunity to visit a contestant, but that's it other than the brief opportunity
to visit a contestant backstage on evenings of preliminary competition, and
that requires a pass.
Sarah warned me not to approach Felicia in a hasty manner at any of the occasions
where family members are allowed to visit.
"If you try to walk behind an autograph table, you may find yourself tackled
by a security guard," she stated. "They WILL protect the girls."
Barbara took a week of vacation to attend the pageant, and I scheduled a
full week of work in the Vicksburg area in order to spend some time with
the family. Barbara was to have flown to Dallas for an overnight stay, Wednesday
night. We did not purchase a set of tickets for each of us in advance, so
her being out for the first night of preliminary competition would allow
me to use her ticket to the pageant. Yet, when Felicia awoke with a kidney
stone attack Wednesday morning, plans were changed. Barbara felt that she
needed to be in Vicksburg to support both Sarah and Felicia. I was a little
relieved when Barbara decided to attend the pageant Wednesday night, and
I was free to stay at the motel.
While in the hospital that morning, tests determined that Felicia had two
kidney stones. One was still inside the kidney, while the one in the urinary
tract was soon flushed into the bladder. Afterwards, she was free of pain
and remains so at the time of this article. Yet, it's an almost certainty
when the other stone dislodges she'll know it long before the doctors do.
The forty contestants in the pageant were divided into three groups, with
thirteen contestants in each of two groups and fourteen in the third group.
Wednesday night Felicia and her group competed in the swimsuit category,
while a second group competed for talent, and the third group vied for evening
gown and casual wear and had to answer one randomly chosen interview question.
Because Felicia was still slightly sedated from the morphine she had been
given for pain at the hospital that morning, she didn't have her "spark."
I had planned to purchase a ticket for Saturday night, but Barbara and Sarah
encouraged me to attend the preliminaries on Thursday night.
"You won't be able to see Felicia do anything Saturday night," Sarah exhorted.
"She hasn't got a chance of making the top-ten."
Almost since the night Felicia won the Miss Pontotoc pageant, I've listened
to Sarah play down any possibility that Felicia might be among the finalist
for Miss Mississippi. However, I attribute that to Sarah preparing herself
for disappointment, more so than for a lack of winning attributes on Felicia's
part. Felicia might not be the most beautiful, but she's certainly "a looker."
She's a talented singer and having danced for the Tupelo Fire Ants, an Arena
Football team, she can hold her own with other dancers.
In the past few decades, the Miss Mississippi pageant has become a major
production, with contestants performing complex choreography while belting
out songs. While there are paid performers, as well, the contestants add
a lot to the nightly performances.
Barbara was in line to purchase a ticket for me on Thursday night, when Sarah
found someone she knew who happened to have an extra ticket. Myra Guyton
is the director for the Miss Tupelo pageant and our dad once worked for her
dad, after our dad sold his grocery business. To my surprise Myra discounted
the ticket twenty percent and refused to take a penny more. Her husband was
unable to attend the preliminaries for Thursday, so I sat next to Myra for
the evening.
If there’s an advantage to buying tickets at the last minute, it’s
surely in the excitement of the seating. I ended up attending three nights
of the pageant, and by sitting in a different location each evening, I had
the opportunity to meet several different individuals and explain my relationship
to Miss Pontotoc. Either most of them were extraordinarily polite or else
they were impressed with Felicia’s stage presence. In either case, they
usually helped me applaud Felicia’s performances.
After watching the preliminaries on Thursday night, I told Barbara if she
could find me tickets for the rest of the week, I’d attend those nights,
as well. She found some, and I went. It’s hard to admit that I had a
good time at a beauty pageant, but I really enjoyed the evenings. I have
seen the televised version of Miss Mississippi in the past, but TV doesn’t
come close to measuring up to a live performance. The cameras only capture
a small portion of all that’s going on at the pageant. Having been there
and seen simultaneously the live version and the TV version, I can assure
the reader, live is far superior.
Each year the Miss Mississippi pageant is centered on a theme. This year’s
theme was Christmas, which some attendees found improbable for late June,
but I had no objections to the choice. Those who produced the pageant definitely
did a good job. I’ve not seen a Broadway play, but I can’t imagine
a Broadway play being more professionally done.
As to the outcome of the pageant, Felicia didn’t win. Competition in
all the preliminaries was strong, and true to her mother’s expectations,
Felicia didn’t make the cut for the top ten on the final night. However,
Pontotoc can be proud of how well represented it was in the person of Felicia
Brown.
Felicia won the hearts of a lot of people during her stay in Vicksburg. We
met one of them at a Waffle House restaurant following the Thursday night
program. She was in the dance group, The Miss Mississippi Dancers. She told
us that she always tried to make it to Felicia’s table at mealtime,
because Felicia was so funny and so much fun to be around. She also told
us that she and her friends backstage kept singing the song Felicia chose
for her talent presentation, "Whatever Lola Wants Lola Gets," but that none
of them did it as well as Felicia. The county sheriff must have been quite
taken with Felicia, as he was seen escorting her on several occasions and
told her if a "Trooper’s Award" were presented to a contestant, she’d
be the most deserving.
The Miss Mississippi pageant awards a total of $147,000 in scholarship monies,
more than any state pageant. Felicia, was awarded the Bill Hallberg Memorial
Scholarship ($1,000), a first-year scholarship dedicated to the memory of
Bill Hallberg (long-time pageant volunteer worker) who died tragically last
September. The award is presented to the contestant who best exemplifies
Bill's "beautiful spirit...exuberant laugh...warm smile, and open arms that
embraced life and...those around him."
In my opinion, Felicia was the perfect choice.
Felicia had a ball and told us, "This is the best summer camp I've ever been
to. I had a great time, and I got paid for coming."
She brings home $2,400 (The $1,000 scholarship plus the amount each Miss
Mississippi contestant receives for participating) to add to the $1,000
scholarship for winning Miss Pontotoc, 2004.
Sarah says she’s not funding another appearance at Miss Mississippi
for Felicia if she should choose to compete in an area pageant next year
and win the opportunity to return to Vicksburg, but I wouldn’t bet on
it.
New Car Arrives
Chevrolet Impala Sedan
Finally, I get a new company car! The bean counters of corporate America
do a decent job of helping corporations maintain profitability. Theirs is
a largely thankless task and folks like me often criticize their contributions,
especially when the financial reports they produce result in budget cuts
for important considerations like company cars. For those of us lower in
the corporate pecking order, there’s no way to find out what actually
took place a couple of years ago. However, the evidence strongly indicates
that new cars were taken out of the budget when it was decided to downsize
the total number of regions from seven to four. And, we’re convinced
the logic was that since a number of positions would be eliminated within
the ranks of middle management, a sizeable fleet of used cars could be parceled
out as replacements over the next year or two.
My company car had almost a hundred thousand miles on it at the time of the
downsizing. Drivers are supposed to request a new car at one hundred fifteen
thousand miles, but when my request went unheeded and the odometer climbed
to one hundred thirty-five thousand, I began to be concerned for my personal
safety. Breakdowns out in the backside of nowhere are not preventable, but
high-mileage automobiles are at a greater risk than others. Personal safety
was a primary consideration in my decision to opt for an older model fleet
car with fewer miles than that of my 2000 model Taurus, which had one hundred
seventy-two thousand miles.
Those of us eligible for a new car submitted our color choices around the
first of April. The model chosen for us was the Chevrolet Impala, sedan.
I chose black for the exterior color and gray for the interior. Because black
is such a hard color to keep clean, I considered ordering a different color,
until I noticed all of the choices had an almost black horizontal stripe
running along the side panels and wrapping around both bumpers. I didn’t
care for the way it looked, but because it was less obvious on the black
car, I selected a black car.
The second week in June, Tony McNair (one of the Retail Business Consultants,
with whom I work) phoned to ask me if I would be in the office the following
Friday, and would I be available to drive him to Greenwood to pick up his
new car. I told him I was expecting a new car, as well, but he said my name
was not on the list he’d been given. Due to my confusion regarding the
day of my doctor’s appointment, it turned out I couldn’t be in
Indianola to meet Tony. However, when he got to the dealership, he asked
who had a new SUPERVALU car that had not been picked up.
"Wayne, they have the paperwork at the dealers showing your car is in," Tony
phoned to tell me. "And, they’re anxious for you to pick it up. They
said they need the room."
I had received no confirmation from SUPERVALU regarding the car, so I asked
my boss, Bob McGehee, to check on it for me. He did and replied that the
clerk at our regional headquarters didn’t have any supporting documentation
to indicate my car was in Greenwood.
I often select a route through Greenwood on my way to my office in Indianola,
though it’s not my favorite way to get to Indianola from Pontotoc, it
is among the shortest. The Chevrolet dealership is currently located in downtown
Greenwood, but a new site for the dealership is under construction on Hwy
82. It took me a few minutes "exploring" the downtown streets to find the
dealership, but having located it, it took less time to confirm my car was
on the lot. I told the representative, who helped me, that I hoped to be
back that afternoon to pick up the car.
Later that day, I phoned the clerk at SUPERVALU responsible for procuring
new cars and explained I had seen the paperwork on the car and that my car
was waiting.
"Well, the dealer hasn’t let me know anything," she stated, somewhat
exasperatedly. "But, you can go ahead and pick it up."
I found someone at my office to drive me to Greenwood and return my car to
Indianola. By mid-afternoon, I was on my way back to Pontotoc. The next night
I washed the dust off at Young’s Car Wash in Pontotoc, after the birthday
party for Glenda Corley. The following day it rained, and, more than two
weeks later, I don’t think it’s missed a day raining on me since.
I’ve logged more than three thousand miles in two weeks and am averaging
almost thirty miles per gallon fuel economy, an improvement over each of
my last two cars. So far, I’m pleased with the responsiveness of the
Impala in passing situations and its comfortable interior. I also like the
individual temperature controls that allow driver and passenger to regulate
their own temperature. Barbara can keep cool, while I stay warm. It has a
CD player that I probably won’t ever use, but I am enjoying having two
receptacles for powering my radar detector and cell phone, as it reduces
cord clutter. For the moment, I’m quite happy with the Impala but
that’s subject to change. Meanwhile, if you’re in my neck of the
woods, stop by, and we’ll go for a spin.
Fish Fry 6:00
P.M. Saturday, July 31st
All subscribers (readers) to this newsletter are invited to the annual gathering
of the family and friends of Wayne & Barbara Carter on July
31st in the backyard of the couple's residence in Pontotoc for
an evening of fellowship and food.
In addition to great desserts and fried catfish with all the trimmings, live
entertainment will be presented. Jason Carter will perform several guitar
selections. He will be followed by a couple of folks recommended by Gene
Crouch, Barbara's brother. And if Gene gets his wish, Rayanne Adams will
play the keyboard to round out the evening's entertainment.
Some invitations will be mailed, but subscribers should consider the announcement
in this newsletter as an official invitation and respond accordingly. Feel
free to bring children or invite a guest to join you, but in order to provide
adequately for our guests, we would appreciate an acknowledgement no later
than Saturday, July 24th. Responses are acceptable whether via
email, U.S. Mail, or telephone.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Bodock Beau Why
Am I So Tired
The following comes our way from Ken Gaillard, but the author is not known.
Perhaps, you'll now understand how it's possible to be so tired.
Why am I so tired???
For a couple years I've been blaming it on lack of sleep, not enough sunshine,
too much pressure from my job, earwax build-up, poor blood or anything else
I could think of. But now I found out the real reason: I'm tired because
I'm overworked. Here's why:
The population of this country is 273 million.
140 million are retired.
That leaves 133 million
to do the work.
There are 85 million in school,
which leaves
48 million to do the work.
Of this there are 29 million employed by
the federal government,
leaving 19
million to do the work.
2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied
with finding Osama and Saddam's WMD,
which leaves 16.2 million
to do the work.
Take from the total the 14,800,000 people
who work for state and city governments
And
that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.
At any given time there are 188,000 people
in hospitals,
Leaving 1,212,000
to do the work.
Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.
That leaves just two people to do the work.
You and me. And there you are sitting on your "Butt" reading jokes.
Nice, real nice.
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