Cheerio Girl
Buenos Diaz! Can you believe it’s December already? It’s a
little hard to believe considering I live in America’s Finest City and the
weather has been in the high 70s and low 80s for most of the fall. We just last
week got some cooler temperatures at last, including a couple of spots of rain
that lasted all of 48 hours and backed up our traffic for just about as long. Usually I complain about this sort of warm-weather-winter
thing because I like my holidays a little less on the tropical side. Really though…. It ain’t so bad living in
paradise.
Today’s blog post was inspired by a friend of mine (who so
happens to be a bitchin’ stylist in San Diego’s East Village). My girl Briana
has somehow managed to pop out four adorable children by the ripe age of 30 and
has perhaps even more impressively managed to stay, if I may say so, real as f*ck,
even as she rides around in her swagger wagon Toyota Sienna. I went to see her just
a couple of weeks ago and she reminded me of a story she’s told me already once
before but that never gets old. To be perfectly honest I forget most of the
details. All I remember is that her second youngest, a sweet and innocent
little toddler, upon making his first black friend, proceeded to walk up to the
child, lick his face and yell out, “Mmm! Chocolate!” I just about wet myself.
Out of the mouths of babes, I tell you. The innocence, the simplicity… it slays
me.
So this blog post is in homage to that simplicity, a
flashback to my own childhood. It’s a trip down memory lane to when things were
simpler and when I was still a nerd, just a slightly smaller one. I hope these
little stories will serve as a happy interlude to your day and perhaps inspire
you to view the world as you did as a child. Without further ado, I give you:
Cheerio Girl.
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Once upon a time, I was but a wee little toddler,
chubby-cheeked, white as snow, and with bangs for mother-effing days. I loved
books (duh), Barbies and this raggedy stuffed dog, and I really loved to dance around the living room all dang day. I LIVED in
particular for the VHS tape of Madonna’s The Virgin tour. It was my jam.
I can actually recall these days quite vividly. I’d open my
eyes, wipe the sleepies away, brush my teeth with bubble-gum toothpaste and
then get dressed. Usually I chose a tshirt and pants, but if I was feeling particularly
festive I’d throw on about 20 bangles and this sweet get-up that consisted of a
crop-top with bottoms that looked like a skirt with leggings underneath. My
grandmother used to sew back in the day and sold her goods at a local swap meet
on the weekends. This particular outfit was one of my faves, so I’d happily
model it at her swap meet stall if I got to take it home with me afterwards.
Picture me walking up and down that asphalt with attitude in a variety of colorful
80s prints. Uh huh honey.
So I’d put this sucker on and make my way to the living room
where I would carry out the sequence of steps my mother had taught me to do on
my own and not bother her for: “Press ‘On’ button on TV and VCR. Press number ‘3’
then ‘Enter’ on TV remote for Channel 3. Put tape in VCR. Press ‘Play’ on VCR.”
Then the magic began. I believe the opening number was “Dress You Up,” where
Madonna started off at the top of a small set of stairs and descended them two
or three at a time whilst striking something akin to a Heisman pose. She was
decked in a very colorful concoction of lace and studs and fingerless gloves
and did that classics 80s arm-swing move as she belted out the chorus. Naturally,
I followed suit. I twirled, I spun, I toe-tapped and sang my little heart out song
after song after song.
I loved Dress You Up, Holiday (CELEBRATE!!!), Into The
Groove and Lucky Star; I had signature dance moves for each that often left me
dizzy and exhausted. My absolute fave however was towards the end of the tape.
Right when Like A Virgin was about to wrap, I’d haul toddler ass to the kitchen
and pour some Cheerios into a Ziploc bag then run back to my spot in front of
the television screen in perfect time for the next number to start. I’d pop
little handfuls of cereal in my mouth and dance furiously in place as the verse
built up to the chorus. Then came my moment, so I screamed at the top of my
lungs: “Cause we are living in a-a Cheerio world, and I AM A-A-CHEERIO GIRL!
You KNOOOOW that we are…” Yeah. It was another cool five or six years before
someone took the time to correct me, and I didn’t accept this correction
quietly.
In telling this story to a coworker a few weeks ago, I made
an interesting connection: I apparently felt compelled as a child to tie my
snacks in with my chosen activities. For instance, I was really obsessed with a
cartoon on Nickelodeon called David the Gnome. David was a little gnome doctor who
lived in a forest with his wife Lisa. He had an awesome sidekick fox named
Swift who would take him places when other gnomes or animals needed healing,
and Lisa would always bake them a loaf of bread to take on their journey to
save the world.
I thought this loaf of bread much resembled a particular
type of pan dulce (Mexican sweet
bread) called a puerquito, a golden
brown pig-shaped pastry that tastes somewhat like gingerbread. Since we often
had this in our house, I felt the need to bake one up to coincide with the loaf
Lisa baked for David. By “bake,” I mean I’d use every ounce of my strength to heave
our toaster oven from the lower cabinet onto the counter and would then place
my puerquito in said oven for five
minutes. I’d take care to carefully pull
it out with oven mitts when the timer went off and blew on it to make it cool enough
to touch- even though I never actually turned the oven on or even plugged it in
for that matter. I’d then sit in front of the TV and munch on my little pig
while David and Swift went off to save the day. If there was no puerqito available to me, I’d settle for
ripping the guts out of a loaf of French bread, smashing it and molding it into
a smaller loaf and putting that in the not-turned-on toaster oven. I’m aware
the loaf of bread was already, well, a loaf. But the guts were my favorite, so…
leave me alone.
I also had a food-related Cinderella-watching ritual. Remember
that scene from Disney’s Cinderella where she’s doing her chores and goes out
to feed the chickens? I was absolutely convinced that she was feeding them
teeny tiny pieces of American cheese. So yes- I’d pause the film just before
the chickens were fed and make my way to the kitchen. I’d grab a Kraft American
single, peel off the plastic and then fold that cool, clammy slice over and
over, creating little cubes that I thought looked just like the chicken feed. I’d
pull out my shirt, or dress, or pajama like Cinderella did to her an apron and place
my cheese cubes there for easy access. Cinderella tossed her feed to the chickens,
I tossed cheese to myself and sang along with Gus Gus, Jaq and Cinderelly.
I could go on about my weird food obsessions, like how I
freaked the hell out when my mom gave me cream of wheat for the first time
because I thought she’s tracked down the fairy tale people and gotten the
recipe for porridge (which I thought was a mythical food of sorts). But let’s
talk instead about how inquisitive a tyke I was. I was that kid, the “but why?” kid. I was every bit as hell-bent then as
I am to this day on finding a way to know things. For example, I asked my
mother to explain what a maxi pad was. She bought them on a regular basis,
seemed to try hide doing so, and these times were something she used and I didn’t.
Naturally, I demanded to know what they were for and why they were only intended
for adult use. My mother went with the little-white-lie route and told me they
were really durable tissues for grown-up ladies. Fine. That sounded plausible.
I mean, why would my mother lie?
It was most unfortunate (for my mother, anyway), that not
soon after this incident, a gathering of women found itself at my parents’
home. My mother was hosting a bridal or baby shower, I believe, and one of the
women in attendance sneezed. I’d been playing quietly in a corner when I heard
this call to service, this opportunity for me to save the day and show how well
I pay attention. I popped my head up like a mischievous meerkat then darted to
my mother’s bathroom where I grabbed a “durable tissue for grown-up ladies,”
peeled the plastic off that bad-boy and slapped in on my palm. I ran back out
into the living room and beelined it for the woman who’d sneezed and with my
arm stretched straight out and in front of me beamed, “Here you go!” Mama
dearest walked in the room holding a tray of beverages and mustered every bit
of her strength not to drop them or keel over from embarrassment.That’ll teach her alright.
So remember kids: sometimes made-up lyrics are just better. Fancy cheese is great but American just does the trick sometimes. Bread of all kinds is amazing. Porridge is a real thing. Maxi pads are stupid. Don’t lie to a kid who remembers
shit.
Bookishly yours,
Vanessa
P.S. so when I said I had bangs for days...
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| Ale looks thrilled. and hey- bangs! |
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| I like Easter eggs. and bangs. |
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| Me, a fake turlte, and my bangs. |
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| Ballet and bangs. Lots of bangs. |
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| Mother-Daughter bangs! This *may* just have been the maxi pad day.... |
