Back when I was in junior high, word filtered in through my group if friends that there was a new student that would be arriving, after being expelled from another junior high. You'd have to know my gang to know appreciate how his arrival was received. Let's just say we rolled out the red carpet. His name was J.J., and he was a smart kid, somewhat irreverent, and he liked to push the envelope. I shared an English class with him, and when we were given an assignment to do oral book reports with another student, he and I paired off. We did our report on Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book. I still remember the quizzical look on the face of the teacher as J.J. read a passage from the book, about siphoning gas.
Not long after J.J. arrived, he saw a girl in class named Jill, and he asked us about her. "Forget about her, her dad's a minister, she's a real goody-goody. She narcs on everybody." J.J. was undeterred, responding with a confident "I can change her." That now laughable episode ran through my head today, when I read the obituary at the NY Times of Annette Funicello.
In movies and in real life Annette was the epitome of the unchangeable good girl. In the beach party movies, she was always off to the side, waiting for Frankie Avalon to get bored with the other bikini clad somewhat slutty girls. Despite her good looks and hourglass figure, she was always the girl who wouldn't put out, or even show her navel. But you know what? In real life, just as in the movies, she stuck to her guns (no Russ Meyer pun intended) and for that, even though she was a marginal talent, she has my complete respect. Plus, who else has had both the Beach Boys and Fishbone as backing bands?
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