Newscoma

The nieces are very active in their school. It’s pretty much like any middle-school in America where you have pre and newly adorned teens fumbling their way through adolescence. My nieces are no different, but they choose to be involved, are only emo when they are glaring at me and are good kids, but if you tell them that I will cut you.

Anyway, they were in this morning’s talent show at the school. I decided to go and see them do their stuff not really knowing what to expect. The lady on the mic who was emceeing the event reminded the students that there would be psychological beheadings if they misbehaved. I believe this was directed to the 8th graders as 8th graders are willing to mock anyone different at any given amount of time.

She informed the ransackled lot of us, parents, aunts and grandparents, that last year there were 10 participants in the show. This year there were nearly 30.

Now, the talent basically had some kids lip-synching, which didn’t bother me too much because I was just pleased to see kids getting out there in front of a crowd. Even Finn’s mom led a rousing edition of “Lean on Me” in honor of a teacher which had the kids on their feet. Finn would be proud of her mother. She is one, very, very, very nice lady and the kids love her.

One niece, with her merry band of 5th-grade friends, did the Cha-Cha slide.  Other kids did dance routines. One boy did a hysterical, yet oddly perfect, Napoleon Dynamite dance and was even wearing a Vote For Pedro shirt on for extra authenticity. Man, I loved that kid. I also liked the acting troupe of four girls who made fun of Twilight. Oh, and the kid that played Smoke on the Water.

That was just about damned perfect. As a child of the 70s, I grinned a big cheesypoof smile that hurt my ears. Made me happy, my friends.

Several girls sang Taylor Swift songs. Or, I should say, they sang that song where Swift is in the video where she is in the band and loves the boy across the street who is dating a cheerleader. Apparently, tweenagers love that song. My niece sang a song named Fearless also by Swift that I’d never heard before but is apparently pretty popular if one is 13, which she did a fine job of. You have to understand, in my family, we are honest although not brutal, when it comes to performances. But, Asa Corn, knocked it out of the ballpark.

I’ll be damned if she didn’t just sing the song, she performed it. And, yes, I cried. SHUT UP! I wish my mom could have been there to see her as my mom was a real, bonafide singer.  Anyway, my niece won first place and I teared up again. A lady saw me do it and  Hootsvillian concern was displayed quickly much to my chagrin.

“Honey, are you okay,” she said patting my back with very kind eyes. I wanted to tell her to quit patting my back, but she was being nice. And then she threw me the curve ball. “You miss your mom, don’t you?”

Everyone in Hoots knows everyone else. You can’t run from these things. I just nodded and tried in a very ladylike manner not to start blowing snot all over the place in an all-encompassing sob storm and gulping random bursts of air of hysteria.

I think the high turnout today of nearly two hours of kids singing, dancing and whatever that one act was is due to Glee. The kids who usually don’t necessarily stand out in a crowd decided to take the bull by the horns and have their day. And I loved every minute of it.

The creativity was wonderful. And the kids were smiling and laughing. Sort of gave me the Christmas spirit a little bit.

The niece won $15 dollars as her first place prize, wouldn’t let me take her picture and laughed because I put four visitor stickers on the back of her mom, Homer, during the performances, which cracked the 5th grade class behind me up. I even took pictures as I added new visitor stickers and a teacher’s assistant helped me find more stickers.

Middle school. You never grow out of it.