Well, Bless Her Heart....
Have you heard about South Carolina's recent claim to fame?
We are now the proud recipient for the most YouTube viewings this week, thanks to our Miss South Carolina Teen, Caitlin Upton.
Caitlin is a very pretty young lady from Lexington who is a great soccer player and plans to study graphic design at Appalachian State University this year. But neither her looks, sports prowess or future plans are what gave her the infamous "15 minutes of fame"... it was a simple case of getting flustered.
When asked this question,
"Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
This was Caitlin's infamous reply:
Oh, my.
Now, I must admit, being asked a question off the cuff is not easy. Neither is standing on stage in a swimsuit and heels. Back in 1984 when my best friend Sheila Smith begged me to enter the Miss Heritage Days Pageant with her, I dreaded both. But, I wanted to be a good friend, so I went along with it. She dropped out, and my mean mother made me stick with it. Faced with 15 other girls who had been in pageants before and knew the tricks to dry mouths on stage "Smear Vaseline on your teeth, dummy" and how to smoosh their...ahem, .... boobs... into the swimsuit in precisely the correct attention, I felt like a dork. When I walked out for the first competition, evening gown, my mother's boyfriend told me later that I had my shoulders up so high I looked like a football player. Nice.
So, that being said, I can commiserate with how nervous Miss South Carolina teen was on Saturday night.
But, darn, did it have to be yet another "South Carolina Thang" for my Northern friends to comment on?
Luckily, Caitlin has a good sense of humor and is taking this in stride. No one will remember who the true winner was of Miss Teen USA 2007, but everyone will remember that cute blonde from SC who really, really flubbed up a pageant question.
Read more here:
and
???
This is the reigning Miss Teen South Carolina?. This is the cream of the crop of SC Teen Queens?
She did not sound like someone who has been groomed to be a beauty queen. You would think that she would have learned a few tricks about schmoozing your way thru the question portion of pageants by now.
Oh well, she'll probably be offered her own talk show on the Disney Channel next. She earned that 15 minutes of fame, now can she work it?
Oh, my goodness!
Jana, I'll betcha it was the smooshing that caused that sweet little girl to lose her focus. I know it has that same, exact effect on me! :-)
Stereotypes are us.
This unfortunate incident reminds me of how I cringe every time a tornado touches down in our state. Invariably, the national news will interview someone who says something alone the lines of...
"We wuz jus' a setting in the double-wide watching the tullyvison when we heerd the awfullest noise. Me and ma hardtly got out afore the whole thang just blewed away..."
South Carolina - love it or leave it, huh?
(Editted for proper grammar... Ha, ha!)
No comments:
Post a Comment