PUT ON A HAPPY FACE

"Keep on smilin', cause when you're smilin', the whole world smiles with you," goes the song's lyrics. Sometimes that's hard to do as my granddaughter Shannon discovered when a pageant crown went to another contestant. 04/21/2016
     

PUT ON A HAPPY FACE

         Last fall my granddaughter, Shannon, and I attended the opening of the Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix. A sign marked “Colleen Pageant” piqued her interest.  So did the winning prize: An all- expense paid one-week stay in Ireland. She decided to submit her application. Considering her busy schedule of school, work and social life, it seemed unlikely that she would pursue this avidly. But, she did.

               A few weeks before the pageant, ten candidates gathered at a private home where a panel of three judges, two men and a woman, interviewed them. Shannon asked me to drive her to this gathering where we met several of the judges and last year’s winner. A small number of people, all close friends and associates, ran the pageant. It became apparent to me that only contestants who were part of the “in crowd” stood a chance of winning. Still, they accepted Shannon and invited her to participate in the pageant staged the following Saturday evening at the Phoenix YWCA on 25^th Avenue.

A representative of each sponsoring organization escorted their candidate to the stage. Each contestant told the audience about her personal interests and activities before answering the questions: What does your Irish heritage mean to you, and why do you think the judges should select you to represent Arizona in this year’s pageant?  Shannon responded with great poise and confidence.

   After all the contestants completed this activity, the judges met privately for a few minutes. They returned and identified the names of the five finalists who would compete in the talent part of the pageant. They did not select Shannon, shocking her and her sponsor. The snub made Jamie, Angie and me distraught. A tipsy older man in the audience, who bought Shannon a few drinks to demonstrate his support for her chances of winning the pageant, shouted out in disbelief.

   Shannon wanted to leave immediately but we persuaded her to stick around to see the five finalists display their “talent.”  Two of the young women sang, two danced, and one played a guitar while singing a dirge made famous by the Irish band, U2. Their level of talent ranged from ho-hum to dreadful. The guitar player played as thought the instrument had but one string, and that off-key. a

The judges selected the winner: Miss Bridget O’Neal, a flaming redhead, with a stereotypical Irish mug filled with freckles. She merited the award. Her resume included a degree in Chemistry and the ability to speak Russian. Her large family of supporters cheered the announcement.

   Shannon left holding her head high. She never had the chance to demonstrate her talent by delivering a seven minute long speech I had written for her called, “IRELAND.” Each letter in the word represented some facet of the Irish persona. Shannon planned to embellish the talk by incorporating the use of sign language to identify each letter. Her talk would be enlightening and funny. However, she never got the opportunity to deliver it.  Some Irish people have no luck.

   Shannon may not have won the prize, but she won my admiration for coping with the hurt she felt when the judges unjustly passed over her.

Although she did not win the pageant, Shannon will ride in a convertible as one of the Colleen Pageant’s representatives in the upcoming St. Patrick's Day parade. It beats walking, especially if horses precede you.

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