Part 9: I Know Where I've Been.
I finish grade ten feeling accomplished and relieved. We do a production of Hairspray (again, with only white kids) and I play Penny Pingleton. It's not the lead but there are a few singing parts that I really like and I got to act romantic opposite with a good friend of mine. I maybe should have mentioned this before, but I was kind of a legend in my high school for singing. I would sing O Canada on the announcement every Monday morning, our school put on a singing competition every year and I always participated. The song that I always came back to was "I Know Where I've Been" from Hairspray. It's a powerful, soulful song about struggle, identity and fighting for equal rights. So of course nobody found fault with a white sixteen year old singing it over and over again, right?
So if you're familiar with that show, you know that Penny Pingleton doesn't sing that song, Motormouth Mabel does. The girl who was casted as Motormouth was actually black, therefore the words she was singing probably rang true to her. However, everyone in the arts department couldn't pass up an opportunity for a massive fight so everyone became very vocal about the fact that I should take her role away, just to sing that song. Now this girl was not a very nice person. She was notorious for causing issues and had been known to be a bit of a diva. I didn't want to fight, but I did want to sing that song. One day when she wasn't in class, the song started and I decided that I was going to dazzle everyone with my skills and sing it to the best of my ability for the teacher. Although definitely dazzled, the teacher couldn't justify giving this poor girl's part away. I had done a good job, but it wasn't my story to tell or part to have.
The day of the performance comes around and the girl who is playing Motormouth doesn't even show up to the show. It was decided that instead of Penny randomly singing a song about black rights, the whole group would sing it together. I do my part as Penny and have so much fun. It was a great way to end the school year.
My dad had been really wanting to take our family to his childhood town in Salmo, BC. Most people have never heard of Salmo but it has become one of our favourite places. It's a very small town with not a lot going on. The town consists of an outdoor swimming pool, a subway, a convenience store, Salmo Grocery and Pine Springs. Pine Springs is a motel campground full of log cabins. Very rustic, not very me. Our log cabin is small, stinky and really hot. This is the middle of July and there are seven of us. There's a bed downstairs for mom and dad, two beds upstairs and another separate bedroom across the hall. The siblings all decided together that we would each take turns sleeping in the bed across the hall by ourselves. This was only fair because it was not ideal for us kids ranging from ages eight to seventeen to be sharing beds in thirty-degree heat, or ever. One night, Jill and I are parched and we need water in the middle of the night. We tiptoe down the narrow, steep, creaky stairs in the motel cabin. It is pitch black because I guess they don't have street lamps in Salmo. We stumble into the kitchen to get some water and make enough noise that we wake up our mom, who was sleeping in the master bedroom connected to the kitchen and living space. She wakes up and calls from her bed to ask us what we're doing up. "We're just getting water." we respond to her. There is no response, a few seconds go by and in a really groggy, creepy voice she says, "Water?" sounding like she had just crawled out of a dark creepy cave or something. This really freaked us out and we sprinted back upstairs to our small bed we were sharing.
As a fifteen year old, I am convinced that I am extremely fat. I think that I have always been really insecure about my body but I remember this summer especially, hiking around Salmo feeling like I couldn't do it because I was too fat. Note to self, being out of shape doesn't mean you're fat. I saw a photo of myself that my mom had taken of me on that hike and I vowed I wouldn't eat a single thing for the rest of the trip. That didn't happen, but I still was not happy with my figure.
We had heard that my dads childhood home was up for sale and that they were having showings. We decided to go as a family and walk through the house where my dad used to live. It was an amazing experience for him. He loves Salmo and has so many fond memories there. We walked through the old log house where my dad spent his childhood years and were under strict instruction to not let the realtor know that he used to live there, because my grandpa had mentioned potentially putting in an offer on the house and they didn't want to price to be raised. We saw the holes my dad punched in the walls, the staircase he used to pee down (you will have to read his book for context) and the yard where their animals lived. Later that summer, my grandpa buys back the house in Salmo where my dad grew up. There are few times I have seen my dad that excited. I felt so happy that we would be able to enjoy Salmo as our vacation home for many years to come.
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