Five Foot Two

By

Jacquimac

Edited by Jonelle

Part one

I still remember how it all started , we were at the dance class fooling about till the instructor arrived. Alec was on piano the playing away without a care in the world and I started to sing along. It was an old song from around 1914. Everyone looked at me and asked how I knew the song, I remembered my grandmother singing it often and I always thought it was a catchy song and it just stuck in my memory.

Alec started to play another piece of music and asked if I knew the words, I didn`t just know the words I could the Charleston dance. The dance teacher Ms Mays had been watching us and asked me to do a dance duet with her so we did the Charleston together. We didn`t do much dancing that night just talked and she told us about ragtime and other early twentieth century dances.

It would seem I started something because at the end of dance session it was announced we would be learning the dances the y did in the roaring twenties and later on a review in the school gymnasium. Ms Mays decided to see my parents to find out when my grandmother would be visiting again, she struck lucky as Gran arrived the following week. Gran was eighty yrs old and small, but very active. She could walk the legs off us any day of the week and not break sweat.

I never knew Gran`s husband as he was killed in the second world war and she had never remarried, even when she struggled to raise a family of seven kids alone before the dawn of the welfare state. As she was starting to get on a bit in years it was decided that she would sell her house and come live with us which she did.

So at the next dance session Gran turned up as an instructor and roped me in as her assistant because I could do the all 20`s dances as well as she could. Side by side we did the Charleston to start with and moved onto the Black Bottom,The Bump,Shimmy,Bunny Hop, the Collegiate Shag, ending with the Foxtrot and a Waltz. Everyone was amazed as we went form one dance to next. I then ended up singing the Charleston and Five foot two ,Honeysuckle Rose and Stardust.

Gran really liked ragtime because it was her generations music, it was also the time of the Great Depression a really bad time for everyone. I used to spend my holidays with Gran and she taught me all the songs and dances from that era. Ms May had found about a Broadway show called "Runnin Wild" and somehow had managed to get a photostat copy of the original script from one of her contacts.

Ms Mays was trying to write the revue while the rest of the student learned the songs and dances from the Roaring Twenties, with Alec on the piano, some of got picked to sing certain songs and to dance to them. The Idea was to wear costumes as authentic as possible to the period we were portraying. Oh boy was everyone tired at the end of the sessions, Sandra said that she didn`t realise how hard it was to keep the pace going, but Gran told her that in her days when you went dancing you spent most of the time on the dance floor.

Over the weeks everything started to fall in place, we were having problems with costumes as we didn`t have the money to buy or hire them. The script was done, just who was to do what had yet to be decided music wasn`t a problem as there was an amateur Jazz band at school.

Gran and Ms Mays started to involve me more with choosing people to match parts, as they knew I could do all the dances and sing the songs I wasn`t a problem.

Some of the parents watched the rehearsals and were persuaded with helping out, the Dads doing scenery and the Mums helping to make costumes.

The script was finally finished a much cut down version of the original.

I had to help Dad take Gran`s trunk from the attic to her room one night, she was getting out her Flapper Girl outfits. I thought she was going to take part as her dresses wouldn`t fit any of the girls, or maybe they being used as examples to help make costumes for the girls.

Gran and Ms Mays started meeting more often to place the kids were they would fit better, they were determined that the revue was going to be a major success for the kids. There wasn`t a lot of success with the various sporting teams this year and this was a good chance for the non sporty kids to succeed for once. Most of the dance club were too small, not strong enough or had no interest in sport and were constantly bullied and teased by the bigger kids. Gran and Ms Mays were scheming together, the kids , well we were just having fun singing and dancing at every opportunity.

A week later and the list was put on the notice board and everyone crowded round to see what part they got. My name was on the list but not what part I was to play. I asked Ms Mays about what I was going to do and was told that she and Gran would talk to me later.

I hadn`t really looked at list except to see the part I had got, but then again I don`t suppose the rest of kids had either. When I got home Gran and Ms Mays talking with my parents, as soon they saw me I was told to join them. Dad had a weird smile on his face and Mum was giggling when Gran took me upstairs.

Gran explained that they were short a Flapper Girl and as I could do the female parts in the dances they wanted me to take the Flapper Girl spot. Well I played girls parts in some of the schools plays so being a Flapper Girl was no big deal. Gran Opened her trunk and took a Black Tier dress and handed it to me along with a beaded headband and a pair of 3 inch T-Bar heels. I already had some female lingerie accumulated from doing school plays so I went to my room and and put everything on.

I went back to Gran`s room and she put a single black feather in the right hand side of the headband handed me a Feather Boa a pair of long sleeved opera gloves all of which I put on and we then went back to the lounge.

Dad just stared open mouthed while Ms Mays and Mum started making a fuss, "We`ll have to get your hair cut to a bob , makeup will have to done to enhance the outfit etc. Dad went out somewhere, and the three women went shopping and while they were away I went and changed and hung everything up. After a couple of hours I decided I would have an early night and went to bed.