FOR A MOMENT, SHIRLEY TEMPLE

When I was a little girl, Shirley Temple was an idol.  All little girls who had Buster Brown Bobs wished for sausage curls like hers and wanted to dress like her.  There were Shirley Temple dresses and hats to be had by those who could afford them, and of course Shirley Temple dolls for those who were rich.  During my lifetime, I had one Shirley Temple dress, which Mother had bought for me on sale for $1.00 because it had been "slightly damaged".  Damaged or not, I treasured that dress and wore it till it fell apart.  It was yellow organdy, and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.   I was exactly the same age as Shirley Temple and will admit, I over identified with her.  When I tap-danced I imagined that I was her, though  singing the "Good Ship Lollipop" was beyond even my imagination since I couldn't sing a note.  Shirley Temple once wore a white fur coat and hat in one of her many movies.  White fur coats and hats, styled after hers, became the rage for all little girls of the well-to-do families.  I wanted a set more than one could imagine.  I would have done anything for  it.  I talked about the fur coat and hat incessantly, I dreamed about it, even cut pictures of it out of magazines and slept with them under my pillow.

Of course there was  no way my family could afford such a luxurious item. I think the coat and hat set cost something like $10.00, an unthinkable amount for a poor family of the depression.  But I couldn't get it out of my mind and pestered my mother constantly about it.  Finally, one day, in desperation I issued an urgent plea to my mother.  I said, "I know we can't afford the coat and hat, Mother, but if I could just see a real one, even touch it, maybe, it would make me happy.  PLEASE. Please, Mother take me to town and let me see a real white fur Shirley Temple coat and hat."  Mother responded, "If I do, will you stop pestering me about it forever?"  I promised.  So the next day, Mother and I went to town.  We walked instead of taking the bus because we couldn't justify spending bus fare on such a frivolous journey.  She took me by the hand and we went to the city of Wichita's finest department store, The George W. Innes Department Store.  We went right to the children's department and Mother  told the clerk we would like to see the Shirley Temple fur coats.  "Certainly", said the tight lipped saleslady.  She took us to the rack where they hung.  There they were in all their splendor.  A whole row of white  rabbit fur coats,  with their little  flat topped hats hanging around the top of the hangers.  I gasped at the beauty of them.  "Can I touch one?" I asked my mother.  She said I could.

Then I heard her say to the lady, "I think we would like to try this on, please."  I couldn't believe it. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I could actually try one on! "Of course." Said the lady, without a smile.  They took the coat and hat off the hanger and let me slip into it.  I can still feel the smooth, cold  satin of the lining that I felt as I shoved my arms into the sleeves of the coat.  I felt like a princess.  Mother put the hat on my head and tied the gross grained ribbons under my chin.  We buttoned the coat.  Mother told me to go look in the mirror.  As I gazed at my reflection in the mirror, I didn't see me at all.  I saw Shirley Temple.  I had been transformed.  I was beautiful, no longer the ugly little freckle faced girl  I had been when I entered the store.  I rubbed my hands over the soft fur.  I turned this way and that and walked back and forth so that I could watch the beauty of the shimmering white fur coat and hat. I kept the coat on for as long as I dared---several moments, I suppose.  Much more and the tight-lipped lady would have suspected us as shop-lifters.  I reluctantly let Mother help me take the coat off, and untie the ribbons to remove the hat.  I gave the fur one more little pat as Mother put the coat back on the hanger and tied the little hat back around the top.  Eventhough I no longer had the coat on, I could still feel its softness on my body.  The lady asked Mother if she would like to buy the coat and hat. "No thank you, we were just looking."  My mother responded. Then, "Come on, Maxie, it's time to go home."  We left the store then, and walked the twenty blocks or so home. It was an easy walk for me, for  I was walking on air.  I had, for a moment, felt like a princess.  For a moment I was Shirley Temple.  I'd had my treat and I loved my mother for making it possible.  I didn't stop dreaming about the white fur coat and hat, but I did stop pestering my mother about it.  Sometimes a little taste of Heaven is enough.