A little backtrack here: During our school's winter break, one of the teachers passed away. He taught Distributive Education and oversaw the school's Distributive Education Clubs of America chapter, otherwise known as DECA. Even though I took the class my senior year, I was never really quite certain what the "Distributive" aspect was. Mostly, it was about how to work and do your job when you went out in the real world. You also learned a lot of useless statistics that were likely quickly forgotten as soon as your received your diploma.
The teacher was also a professional photographer and had worked at my Aunt Cind's wedding just 3 1/2 months prior. I had previously heard stories about him getting "up close and personal" to the bride and groom during the vow exchanges. It was no different at Cind and Jid's wedding. He was there, right in plain sight. Everybody at the weddings he worked remembers him clearly, but as he never shows up in the wedding photos (and this was before video recordings were done of weddings), anybody not at the wedding would ever know he was there.
After he died, the school asked my mother to take over the DECA program. Mom had taken some business classes in college, but wasn't really certain she would be able to handle the material. However, by my senior year, she had it mastered. I will write about that later.
One of the things that the club had every spring was a pageant to name the DECA Sweetheart of the year. It wasn't like a regular beauty contest. There was no swimsuit competition or talent display. The local clothing stores would allow the contestants to use some of the latest styles as a sort of fashion show of casual and evening wear. The contestants were determined by a popular vote of the club members. The top ten girls got to participate.
That particular year, they may not have had a good crop of girls to choose from. One was this shy girl named Jand. Jand was overweight and wasn't a very good student. I knew her because she was in choir. However, I also knew her as the older sister of one of my biggest crushes: Lyz.
Lyz was in my class. She was very smart, thin and very attractive. She was the virtual opposite of Jand. However, the one thing she had in common with her was that she was shy. (Interestingly enough, Lyz tried out for cheerleader a couple of times, but she had a problem ramping up the decibels in her voice. You had to struggle to hear her do yell routines in the gym.)
When you got right down to it, Jand was actually rather pretty. She was just noticeably overweight. The one cool thing about her was that she drove a purple 50's era Thunderbird to school, and the rear turn signals with the sequential lights were still functioning.
I guess she felt really uncomfortable about taking part in the pageant and was trying to get out of it. She told my Mom that she couldn't do it because she was unable to get an escort for the final presentation. My Mom said, "Well, I guess I'll have to ask Fayd to escort you." She said, "Oh, no! I think I can find someone." Well, I guess she couldn't, because my Mom still had to get me to be her escort. I really didn't want to do that, but I thought that maybe there was a chance that Lyz might see me doing her sister a favor and might like me a little better. (Spoiler alert: That didn't happen.) I'm just surprised Mom forced Jand to take part since she obviously didn't want to do it. She probably told her that her grade depended on it. That would not have been a good move on Mom's part.
One of the things the escort had to do, if the contestant won, was place the tiara on her head and give her a kiss on the lips. I was 100% certain that Jand was not going to win, but this part still made me feel uneasy. (Really, I didn't need Lyz watching me kiss her sister. Spoiler alert: That didn't happen, either.)
I had told a friend of mine that I was going to have to escort Lyz' sister for the pageant. He said, "Wow! Lyz' sister? You should ask her out!" He likely had never met her.
About a week before the pageant, I was in the Choir class. We were rehearsing for our production of "The Music Man." I was playing the part of Marcellus Washburn. During class, other members were practicing a number that I was not a part of. I sat on one side of the risers watching them practice. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jand on the other side. I shifted my focus on her without turning my head. I saw her doing the exact same thing to me. I knew what was going through her mind: "I really don't want to be seen with you at the pageant. People will think you're my boyfriend. That will embarrass me the most." Yes, EVERYBODY thought I was a loser.
The interesting thing was that all the other contestants had Alpha males as their escorts. Since I was the only sophomore among the seniors, I looked like a little kid next to them. (The next year, Mom declared that the escorts had to be members of DECA.)
The other escorts were pretty cool and included me in their group conversations during practice. We talked about the Winter Olympics. I said I preferred the Summer games. That was funny because we knew we weren't going to get to watch them because President Carter made the decision to boycott the Russian games in 1980.
During the pageant, Jand looked very uncomfortable. I was surprised she made it through the evening with her emotions intact. As expected, she did not win. (Whew!) I did not run into Lyz after the pageant. I don't even know if she was there. Since I had auditorium duties, I had to tend to those after the pageant and did not get to mingle.
At graduation, Jand was the last female to receive her diploma. Her walking partner was the absolute last person to get his. I never saw Jand again after she graduated in 1980. From my Internet searches, it appears she still lives in Artesia and may have never gotten married.
My senior year, I was going door-to-door selling some stuff for choir. I came to one door and knocked. Lyz answered the door. "Oh, hi, Lyz! I didn't know you live here!" "Well, I actually don't. I'm doing some babysitting." It's the one time that any conversation I had with her was not awkward and we seemed to be like two civilized people who got along okay. It's too bad we didn't have more moments like that.
Lyz did get married and became an attorney. She also still lives in Artesia. I'm surprised at that, because I thought she was destined for so much more. I actually thought she was as anxious to get out of Artesia as I was. She did, after all, attend college and law school in Texas. I guess I was wrong. I can only imagine that it's possible to be ultra-smart and ultra-stuck-on-your-hometown.
In my post about my friend Orld, I wrote how I saw him a few days before the 10 year high school reunion, but I didn't go. He did. A few months later, I saw him again in Artesia. He showed me the group photo of those who attended. Lyz was not in the photo. At the time of the event, I thought if I went, it would only be so I could see her. It turned out it was a good decision not to go.
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