She's So Unusual & Yeah Yeah by Cyndi Lauper

Zoom in on a tiny town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.  I spent a very short time in my life living in Twain Harte.  It is in Tuolumne County and at the time, there was only one stoplight in the entire COUNTY, way away in downtown Sonora.  I attended a K-8 school with only 500 students and all of my friends lived quite a ways away, down windy, narrow mountain roads.  It was a glorious place to be 8 years old, but I imagine if we had stayed there through high school, I might've found it isolating or boring.  

One of my best friends in Twain Harte was Porscha B. and in third grade, she had the brilliant plan to participate in the talent show.  I took the bus home with her after school and we discussed our act.  She had already decided on the song and I wholeheartedly agreed.  Cyndi Lauper was my favorite signer!!  Porscha was going to lip synch the words, I would be on the keyboards since I played the piano, her little brother was going to play the drums, and her younger sister would be on guitar.  We still needed a sax player and coincidentally, the cutest boy in our class played the sax in the school band!  Clint C. was smart and nice and he did his own hair - he used hair spray AND mousse.  Swoon!  I worked up the nerve to call him up and actually talk to him when he answered and he agreed to be in our skit.  It was all very exciting. The day of the performance, Porscha's older sister was on-hand to do our punk rocker make-up and fix our hair.  Clint rocked a mohawk, of course.  It was so cool and I think everyone really enjoyed our performance.

For some insane reason, in fourth grade I decided to follow up that performance by getting a bunch of the younger kids (grades K-2) from the after school program together.  My brilliant idea?  Lip synching and dancing stuffed animals.  I wish I were kidding.  We stood behind a table and held up a bunch of bunnies WHOSE LIPS DO NOT MOVE and earnestly moved them to the beat.  I am embarrassed for my 9 year old self.