There was a popular country music song by Ronnie McDowell (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchin%27_Girls_Go_By#:~:text=%22Watchin…, Retrieved May 11, 2021). Released in 1981, “Watchin’ Girls Go By” had a catchy tune and interesting lyrics.

I’ll admit to my share of girl watching. When I was in high school, I had a beautiful young neighbor who would occasionally walk by my house. If I was on the porch and saw her coming across the top of the hill, I would go inside the house for fear that I might be put into the awkward position of having to speak to her. I always went inside and traveled from window to window, gazing upon her beauty until she was out of sight. I rode the school bus with her, yet I don’t recall ever having spoken a word to her. I would have died of mortification if I knew she knew that I was so captivated by her beauty.

Years later my stepson Dustin went to the hospital. I struck up a conversation with one of the nurses and discovered that she was originally from Maynardville. Further conversation revealed this as the now grown up woman whose beauty I had worshipped from afar in my adolescence. Time does make a change!

I would daresay I was not alone. Not long ago I was reading the comments in one of my old high school annuals. A very pretty classmate, whose beauty I was able to admire (you guessed it, from afar, just not as far) from the time she moved to Union County in seventh grade, wrote something to the effect, “To a very nice guy who’s a little bit too shy.” I might have been shy, but I wasn’t blind, and looks were free. The craft of the art lay in looking from afar and not getting caught.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not talking about pure, unbridled lust. I’m just talking about enjoying pretty girls’ beauty. I once was involved in a conversation with a group of my fellow church attenders with the pastor of our youth. He was happily married with four children. The preacher (jokingly?) said he believed that one of God’s greatest gifts to man was a pretty woman’s legs, and that if she’d show them, he for one would look.

My opinion of a girl’s beauty could be changed by something as simple as a change of hairstyle. I’ve seen ladies over the years who have altered their looks by a change of fashion, hair color, style of cut, type of clothing, etc. to the point that they no longer looked interesting to me at all. Take, for example, the wife of the preacher I mentioned above. I had only seen her at church until one morning when I saw her leaving the high school parking lot after she had brought her children to school. I was as amazed to see her in hair curlers as most will be astonished to learn that a camel’s hair brush is made of squirrel fur. I was just as astonished the first time I saw someone wearing pajamas in Wal-Mart. Every time I saw the preacher’s wife at church after that, no matter how meticulous she looked, I saw those huge hair curlers through the windshield of that station wagon.

Later years brought me love and marriage to a wife who loved to go to Wal-Mart herself. Many is the time my stepson Dustin and I would while away the hours in the van waiting on her to return. We became quite the people watchers, and I believe I can truthfully say we saw it all, at least almost. It is so funny to watch the old sitcoms, particularly Leave It to Beaver, where Mrs. Cleaver was never seen with her hair mussed or her dress wrinkled. I certainly never saw her with hair rollers, and never in pajamas. Now Mrs. Cleaver would be overdressed, even almost in church.

If you see me during the work week or on Sunday, most likely you will find me presentable for most any encounter; however, if you see me on Saturday, you will probably find me unshaven in absolute rags, wearing a soiled cap on my head to hide my mussed hair, ready to tackle the woes of yard work. I have no qualms at all being dressed this way and going to the drug store, grocery store, post office, even a fast food restaurant or Wal-Mart. Neither, it seems, do most other people have reservations about their public appearance. The days that a person dressed in a full suit to eat dinner in their own homes are no longer, at least in our area, it seems.

In my mind I can see Mr. J. P. Heiskell, who at one time was the music director of Maynardville Baptist Church. He and his wife were one of the top five married couples I have ever seen in my life who were absolutely impeccable in appearance. They always wore beautiful clothes and never had even one hair out of place. I never knew them outside of church, and I’m sure they had and wore casual and work clothes on occasion. I was never inside their home, but the outside was meticulous. I was once talking with J. P.’s sister, Bonnie Heiskell Peters, Union County Historian. Ms. Bonnie told me that J. P. wore a full suit of clothes even when he went to Florida on vacation.

And part of how people are perceived has to do with dress and grooming. There was a particular Saturday several years ago when I, dressed in my customary weekend rags, found myself in a rather upscale furniture store. I came across a beautiful mahogany secretary desk which I seriously considered buying. I inquired from the saleslady as to the price, and she just didn’t seem very interested in dealing with me. I have always thought that she stereotyped me by my appearance, and determined that I could not afford a fine piece of furniture. In so doing, she lost a sale, and though I don’t even remember what she looked like (she was obviously no beauty) she could without a lot of effort have sold me that secretary. Perhaps that happened to lots of other people, for that furniture store has been out of business for many years.

Next week I will share more with you about college classes and crowd watching, but I leave you with another thought-provoking question—The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? Check out historicunioncounty.com next week for the answer. Consider:

Prior to 1947, man had not invented pantyhose or clothes dryers.
Clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air.

After quarantine, having plans sounds like a good idea
until you have to put on clothes and leave the house.