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TGIF Plonkers.
Today's featured Friday Follower is Cin from Cinnamon's Spicy Life. Cin is a wife, mom, sister, friend, lifestyler and all-round smart ass with a heart of gold. Here is what she had to say.
Today's featured Friday Follower is Cin from Cinnamon's Spicy Life. Cin is a wife, mom, sister, friend, lifestyler and all-round smart ass with a heart of gold. Here is what she had to say.
Let me be perfectly clear about one thing. I have never been a “true” feminist, nor a beauty queen. And I don’t think you could be both at the same time anyway. I’m sure that this is fairly obvious if you have ever met me, but I just thought you should know it up front. When I was in the Air Force, my job was on the flight-line. I worked on fighter aircraft. Pretty much a man’s job back then, but when I entered the service there was a big push to get women into that field. Just call me a guinea pig I suppose. But I took the job and did it to the best of my ability. I did not ask the other guys to carry my toolbox for me, or use “monthly” excuses to get out of work. I tried to lead by my example. I saw many women that did try to use their femininity to their advantage. That used to piss me off to no end. But men are stupid sometimes and they were easily manipulated by some of these girls. Anyway, although not a feminist, I did believe, and still do, that women can do anything that men can do, with some limitations. Now, on with the story.
Before I arrived at Randolph Air Force Base, the maintenance squadron had NEVER had anyone that they could enter in the yearly “Miss Randolph” contest. All the “boys” in my shop thought that it would be a hoot if I entered. And I fought with them about it, until my First Sargent asked me into his office to persuade me to think about it. I told him that I would enter the damn thing, but if I did, it was because he really thought I had a chance, and that it wasn’t some kind of a joke. He told me that they would be happy if I represented them. So, I said yes. I secretly was thrilled to even get asked about it. Once I have decided to do something though, it’s going to be done to the absolute best that I can. I became obsessed with the idea.
The first stage of the competition was just an interview with the judges. I dressed nice and used my best manners. There were over 200 girls trying out for this. If I didn’t make the finalists, I would have at least felt like I was in good company. So when word came down that I had indeed made the ten finalists, I was over the moon. I had a week to get prepared for the pageant. That meant getting a gown of some kind, learning how to walk without falling over my number “tens”, and coming up with something clever to say during the final questioning of the judges. Things went bizarre from there.
It was the middle of winter, I was white as a ghost, so I wanted a little color. I took a few bucks and bought a sun lamp. One of those old kind that had a timer on it. I thought I could get a little color on my face at least since I wasn’t that great with makeup. Unfortunately, I sat in front of the thing while watching a show on t.v. I burnt the hell out of one side of my face. Oh my gosh, did that hurt. And I looked stupid too. And there was five days until the show. I had to answer questions about the sunburn while out shopping for the dress. I found one that looked alright, but not really what I wanted. It’s always been hard to find a dress because I’m so tall. But it would do. I already had an outfit for the “sportswear” part of the show, so I was set. Thank God, there wasn’t a swimsuit competition.
I knew that my only “ace in the hole” was the answer that I would give to the judges final question. For some reason, I was convinced that they would ask me what I liked most about being a woman on the flightline. My gut told me that since I was the first one that had been asked to represent maintenance, that they would ask me about that. So, I practiced my answer. I would tell them all about how I thought women could be an integral part of all the fields in the Air Force. That we could do the hard work just the same as the guys. That my technical school had prepared me for the hard work. How I was proud to serve and be a good example for the women coming behind me. All that kind of jazz. Yeah, I had that nailed down.
The night of the pageant came. The guys from my shop were in the audience. My Commanding officer and First Sargent were there. The pressure was HUGE. I made it through the sportswear section without falling off the stage into someone’s lap. Then came the walk down the runway in my evening dress. Well, as you can see from the picture, I forgot to take off my stupid work watch. It didn’t really enhance the dress. And although I had brought a really nice necklace to wear.....I forgot to put it on. When I got to the microphone for my last question from the judges, I was ready. And then they asked, “Airman Jones, what is the greatest thing about working with aircraft?” Perfect question right? And I had my answer all ready right? I could tell them how proud I was to be working with America’s greatest aircraft, how the responsibility for millions of dollars of hardware was entrusted to me and my training had been superb and I could handle it. Did I say that? No. Did I come anywhere close to saying my somewhat “feminist” answer? Nope. What did I say? Oh, I turned into the dumbest girlie girl you can imagine. And I said, “ What do I like the best about working with aircraft? The pilots. And the way they look in their flight suits”.
I could have fallen through the floor right there. It got a huge laugh, and some applause, but I felt like I had betrayed myself. I think I was calling myself an idiot the whole way back to the backstage. The other girls were smiling and laughing, they liked the answer. But not me. Ugh I was so mad at myself.
Of course I didn’t win. We knew it was pretty much rigged that an officer chick would win. I was happy to have competed, but I got ribbed about that final answer for a long time. And even now, when I hear that game show host say, “Is that your final answer”, I want to jump up and say, “No, I take it back, dammit !”.
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| Love these babies |
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| These make me smile and drool at the same time |
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| Iron Fist |
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| Colourful and pretty |
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| Girlie and Lovely |
