Back to the Future - sorta

For a while this afternoon I walked around in public in a time warp.

Today, Oct. 2, was the annual chili competition hosted by First National Bank in North Platte, with proceeds going to Mid-Plains United Way in Lincoln County.

Businesses and organizations prepared big vats of their favorite chili and people paid $6 to come taste all of the chili preparations. Then they could vote on hottest chili and best chili overall. The teams choose a theme and dress following the theme and decorate their birth according to the theme.

The Walmart team had a Hawaiaan theme - and I heard one vat of their chili had smoked pineapple in it. Hmmm, interesting!

The winning team for best theme was Coldwell Banker with a Michael Jackson theme.

Appropriately, the North Platte Fire Department's chili was the hottest.

United Way's theme was the 1950s. Board members were asked to get out their poodle skirts and leather jackets and dress up for the event. There were going to be decorations from the '50s around our booth.

It's been many years since I've had a poodle skirt and these days it would require way too much skirt to get around my body. The poodle would get lost in all the folds of the skirt.

I did have a plan though. I pulled on a pair of jeans and rolled the pant legs up to mid-calf. I rolled my socks down to rest on my shoe tops. No, I didn't have penny loafers. I knew my tennis shoes weren't authentic (remember tennis shoes in the '50s? The high-top black tennis shoes?) but they would have to do.

I found a neckerchief from about that era and tied it around my neck. I wear my hair very short, so the best I could do was glob on the styling gel and try to get my hair in the back to form a "ducktail" (remember?).

All things considered, I thought I looked sort of like someone from the 1950s. I walked into the church fellowship hall where the chili cookoff had been moved due to the windy weather. First person I saw was Ginny Martin, the Mid-Plains United Way executive director. She was wearing jeans but also a Hawaiian lei.

"Uhhh, wasn't our theme supposed to be the '50s?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but..." she said. It seems the decorations were stored somewhere and the decorations had gotten water-soaked and were ruined. Learning that late last night didn't give the committee time to come up with a new theme.

So there I was with pantlegs rolled up, socks rolled down and a ducktail in the back of my hair - the only one really dressed for the '50s. A couple others who had not received word about the change of theme either were able to modify their outfits so they didn't stick out quite so obviously.

That's OK. For about an hour today I walked around feeling very much like the teenager I was in the '50s, thinking I was way cool with my pantlegs rolled up, my socks rolled down and a ducktail in the back of my hair.