My New York Minutes - Chapter 1

The Preparation

In April 1976 I applied to the Ford Modeling Agency. I was eighteen and a senior at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington Delaware. To prepare for the interview, I spent approximately 6 years practicing the following:

• Sucking in my cheeks


• Pouting my lips


• Squeezing my boobs into a loose, quite painful, and probably permanently deforming approximation of cleavage


• Measuring my height against a mark on the wall(5'6" until the last minute - 5'7" was the minimum)


• Trying on outfits


• Trying on make-up


• Trying on fake fingernails


• Looking at my long hair down my back using a hand mirror


• Doing the 'cat-walk' strut - in a 9x9 room - in 4" platform shoes

I'm sure there was more. In my defense I will say that I also found time to read almost everything in print, acquire quite an impressive collection of 45 rpm records (and not just The Monkees, although I was in love with Mickey Dolenz), prepare slides from jars of creek sludge stored on the windowsill and view the microscopic creatures in my Dad's microscope, have farting contests over the telphone with my friend and blood-sister, Betsy. And towards the end, hold down a 20-hour-per-week job in addition to school and being a twirler on the color guard.

I called Ford Modeling Agency and found out that they had open interviews on Wednesdays. I convinced my Mom to take me during my Easter break from school. I checked and Easter was on April 18th in 1976, so I'm thinking this would have been the Wednesday after Easter, or April 21, 1976.