Wen I see the clothes style dat stay coming back, I laff because I remembah in high school wen we used to compete wearing crinolines. I no tink dat style EVA goin' come back ... eh, you girls remembah wearing dem? Look nice den, no? The mo' you have, da mo' betta you look ... so we taut. We used to laff wen we saw somebody wearing too many at one time, yet we try to compete and wear as much as we could.

Small keed time, we was pooah, no could buy too much clothes, let alone more crinolines. So, the trick was "use plenty starch." Wen you wash the crinolines and put plenty Niagara starch, ooooh, the flair your skirt look. Make you look like you get plenty crinolines, no?

Anyway, had one girl who used to wear plenty crinolines (her maddah was one seamstress) and she had plenty flair skirts. The funny ting about her was dat when she was walking around with it, it looked good. The skirt would swing back and forth and she had small waist too so wen look good on her. But!!! Every morning wen we had to catch the bus to go school, she had one hard time getting in the bus. We used to laff up! Finally wen she got in, she had to sit in the front, wea the seats face each udda. Remembah how the bus always has seats facing each udda in the front? Well, my girlfriend and me used to sit in the front too. The funniest ting was wen she sat down, her skirt would fly up so high, you no could see her face and den right away she had to put her books on her lap to hold her skirt down. She wore maybe six or seven crinolines! It was so funny. All the way to school she kept trying to hold her skirt down. Us, we only had maybe two or three and was flair enuff, especially wen we had put plenty starch. Had to look okay. At least we could sit down without worrying about our skirts flying up in front of our faces.

Remembah the crinolines had all kind colors? Sometimes I had to use only one color but no had choice, heh, if I wen use only white. I had to wear only one crinoline and had look ugly because no had flair. We were stuck wearing two or tree different colors at one time. Dat time, it made a lot of difference wen somebody had noticed. Shame, heh, if they see you wearing one pink, one white and maybe one blue. So I tell my maddah I only like buy white ones and guess what she tell me? "Wat you tink, money grow on trees or wat?" Oohh so hard up dat time. No can help but wea wat you get and try get away wit it.

Anudda ting was comparing who had the smallest waist. We wore belts like it was going out of style. We had to make shua dat it was at least 3" wide so dat can hold the waist in and make it look small. I remembah mine was 27" and somebody else beat mines. Hers was 26-1/2". Guess whose waist was dat? The one with plenty crinolines! It was fun den. We were all good friends and we shared a lot of tings together. Only ting she had mo nice stuff den all of us, but dat still didn't make her my enemy.

Now the shoes, no had noting to compare. If you remembah, the shoes was always white with flat soles. Notting exciting! Wen we needed anudda pair of maybe black or blue ... guess wat we had to do? Use color shoe polish or shoe dye. Den wen you needed white again ... aaayah ... wat you going do? No can change dat color to white again. So you gotta go "beg" your parents for a new pair and again you going hea da same ting: "Wat you tink, money grow on trees?"

Dat was da days. Shua glad not pooah any more. Now I get so many shoes, I no can find da time to wear 'em. My clothes sta' all jam-packed in the closet. Sometimes I dunno wat I get. Some I neva even wea.

Yea, small keed time was shua hard. No wanda we use the term: "Ass why hard!"

Joyce Guzman was born on Kauai and graduated Waimea High in 1961. Residing in Dana Point, she works for JCP as a makeup artist and sales associate. Gave up working corporate level in 1991, enjoying life working with people who need consultation on skin care and makeup.