Today I was watching Happy Feet Two with my oldest daughter and got caught up in the whole tap dance type routine the penguins exhibit in the movie. The sound of the music combined with the rhythm of the tap dancing penguins really moved my spirit for some reason.
When I was a little girl, I would put on a dress and my black patent leather shoes with the buckles on them that resembled tap dance shoes whenever I knew we were going to the grocery store so that I could pretend to tap dance up and down the grocery store isles to the music playing over the P.A. system. I didn’t really like dresses or dress shoes but for some reason I loved to wear them when I thought I was tap dancing. The funny thing is that although the store was often filled with other shoppers, I felt like I was in my own world. I didn’t even notice the shoppers and would dance up and down the aisles as if I were Shirley Temple. Perhaps I felt like Shirley Temple in real life because I was such a light skinned little girl growing up amongst my darker skinned, African American cousins and family members much like she danced amongst Bill Bogangles Robinson.
I was always good at tuning out the world and what was going on within it. Both music and dance made me feel good and helped me escape my problems. My black cousins from my step-fathers side of the family always teased me and told me that I had no rhythm and couldn’t dance and I made it a point to prove them wrong by practicing every chance I could to perfect my so-called dance skills.
Sometimes I would sit by mother’s console stereo – that was the old stereo that looked like a cabinet. It opened up on top and had an 8-track and record player and AM/FM radio inside. I would sit there for hours and listen to song after song. Then I would break out a comb or brush and hold it like a microphone and sing into it in the mirror. Sometimes Gail (my best friend) would join in with me and we would pretend to be in a group singing the songs.
I really enjoyed listening to my mother’s music. She had all the latest songs on 8-track, and records (what we now call vinyl). I especially loved listening to Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and Gladys Knight and the Pips. I always referred to Gladys Knight and the Pips as Gladys Knight and the Pimps, and Mom would always correct me saying, “its Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Pips, not the Pimps”. I didn’t know what Pimps were so I always wondered why she made such a big fuss about it.