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Show J By BRYAN GRAY r c 'I -' -u The Shirley Jeans' ; succeed not on looks, but on true dignity It's a heady time for high school seniors1. Next week they'll graduate amid conflicting tears and joy.. Laughter and sadness are integral , ' parts of graduation, traditional . companions to scholarship' pro-' grams, yearbooks and final locker clean-out. . ) The coming .years will bring change-and surprises. The boy least likely to succeed at my high school now drives a Mercedes Benz, plunking down hard cash de- ' rived from his electronic invention in San Francisco. Every senior class has such a story .-The kid who came out of nowhere. And that got me thinking again about Shirley Jean. I have written about her before, which is more than her fellow students did when ' she was in high achool Shirley " Jean j was the class wallflower, the girl shunned and often tcssed. The students would tr.f s fees at her when she walked down the hall and scribble ."Love, Shirley" in your yearbook to errf-tr:s errf-tr:s the owner. Shirley wasn't prc.y and she seldom attended jirres."v.-: -2: ".-),.' t ? Shiriey only had one good friend. . Herself. - - , . - v We didn't know at that time that , Shirley, as a child, had contracted a rare ailment. She was victimized by Bilateral Rombug's Disease, a brief ' culprit that left her with sunken cheeks and a lifelong disfigure- - ment. We didn't know about this then-and,;even if we had, I'm hot sure we would have cared. iLlz, ,: - -"Shirley remembers;; itwellr "1 knew I was different from the rest of the kids," she said, "and I knew I didn't look like the others. Let's face it, kids aren't too nice. Few people ever talked to me. When they did, it was usually to make fun : of me',l,i.ii;Ji . So whatever happened to Shirley Jean? Well, she's doing just fine, , ' thank you. Two years ago I tracked her(own to a machine shop that . she's "tkph over from her father. It's net a typically feminine place-but place-but 3 t-r.ts of 20 years ago didn't er.c - f;r.:n:nity. What they fuc' .:. J v "3 ir.lz-endence. Li t! 3 ciity machine shop among a c! r cf iron fIuar screw anchors, eirf - ;f ' ,cc:rkeys-.1c',y " r.cl Shirley steed a. a . -. -v .'. ' .,:'. .. cutter forming a hydraulic cylinder. ' Her father marveled at her ability, i "There are darn few men ma chinists who can do a better job,' ! ; , he said. "She puts most other ma- ; .j chinists to shame. I'm awfully pro-uJofher.", pro-uJofher.", , , And she's proud , of . herself. When her high school reunion book questionnaire asked what she had learned in 20 years, she wrote," - Vw-Jearned that you can succeed -even without good looks. Looks ; just aren't that important." ' . At the machine shop, I brought up the agony of that answer. r "Things, haven't changed much," she told me. "People are still often cruel, refusing to look for . , a person's inner self. They look for beauty, not dignity. When I went to . the 20th reunion, my former,', classmates were still ioring me. . They were sitting around "putting ' on the dog" about how much, money they made, where they golf- ' ed, about their- nice horr.cs in Colorado. Dut, s3, I don't cars about thnt stuff. I chcrs to live in. one cf the pcrcr .sv'-s cf town ' tec:; f- 1 i j rs dr:.n-tM -. 1'. ; i : - - , 7, , ' ;s ' what 1 am; just a hard-working ma-1 yhinisL I've got a boyfriend and he ; treats me like a real person." ' " ; But those high school days re main ' very real. Her 16-year-old daughter'once came home with a story of how she joined in "poking "fun" at another girl. Shirley sat her down. i:;1,.tV(::'i -. It-- 2i ' j . - i5 v-,',- "'i'-'if;' ''.!. ' 11 " , ;' ''''" '''-''i:' - "I told her k was unfair to make fun of others. I told her of the hurt that,I felt when it happened to me.' It's sad to be the little girl that nobody likes." ; ; vj Vt ' The daughter learned a great lesson. I did, ' too, : spending one afternoon with a woman who never lost faith in herself. , ? v f j ' As a writer, I get to meet the "headliners," the successful and healiy, the written-about and wise. The Class of '68 was filled with f rc; '3, end I suppose the " ? C -:.lvr would still make great eery.'' ' - .. i ' t-t z ' y's graduating seniors s! 'Jr':o' -aw this: : .C ci Lvcry c! ...s has a Shirley Jean. V.'e t'.JZA't fcrt L'lem-because ' ycu cr,n te sure' they haven't ";- '' ) |
