Cassetes, Cheap Hair Dye and a Leopard Cape

Looking back, I  never really felt like I was bold enough Scary Spice, mostly because my thin straight-as-an-arrow blond hair looked nothing like her teased up swamp of curly brown delight. But I did love her vivid and loud personality, I loved that she got to do the fast rapping solo in "Wannabe" and  love that I forced myself to learn each and every well timed word. and I still. Know. It.

boom.

But more than that, i loved that there were five of us, and five of them. And I loved that in our own little time and place, we did everything we could to feel and act like them. Cause lets admit the, the Spice Girls were IT in 97' (and yes Wannabe was released on *cassette* thank you very much) . We had been to their concert, bought their merchandise, choreographed our own dances to their lyrics and now it was time to really BE them. Even if only for one night.

So there I stood, Halloween 1997, in the bathroom as an 8th grader with a cheap bottle of hair dye. Not the kind you lather into your hair from a bottle, let sit and then wash it out to find your color beautifully altered. Oh no, I didn't personify Scary spice enough to take on anything that permanent.

I opted for the cheap stuff. The kind that you find on shelves only around halloween right next to the plastic carton containing yellow, blue and red pastes and a make-up applier only good for one messy application. I bought the stuff that literally looks and smell like spray paint, but somehow magically washes out.  I can still smell that brown spray as it eeked out of its bottle, soaking in and transforming my golden hair into a *closer* version of my little teenie bopper hero.

We crimped hair, borrowed shoes, and mascara-ed our little pubescent eyes until we felt like we could walk out on those streets like we owned the night. And we did.

We really did.

The five little "wannabes" , and yes thats me in the middle sporting the leather half top and LEOPARD PRINT CAPE.

Funny, how a photo can instantly bring you to a time, a different place and make you remember so clearly, like you are actually there.   This little blast from the past, brings back so many memories;f fighting with neighbor kids we didn't know but didn't like cause they lived 'down the alley', of trampolines,  late night dance parties at sleepovers and forcing little brothers to be our photographer as we modeled in our backyards.

And though we have all grown up and moved on from this phase, we all still share that little love affair with those other five girls who were friends too. And I love them for that.


*Viva Forever*