50 years of Junior Miss

Fifty years ago, Rowan County had its first Junior Miss pageant.  Last night was the 50th year in a row of once-a-year pageants and all previous winners were invited back to attend and be recognized.  I also served as one of the five judges for this year's contest.  I was so happy because I knew Kim (Reeder) would be in town for the reunion, and I texted Rebecca Craft in the hopes she would also make the trip.  (She did, yay!)  First, there was a social hour, which was followed by a dinner with this year's contestants.  I was psyched to be at the same table with Rebecca and Kim, but then Mrs. Brown made Rebecca move.  :(  I guess she thought it wasn't fair that all the cool girls were at the same table.  So in the end, I didn't get to talk much with Rebecca but we'll hopefully get together in Lexington soon (and we sure won't tell Mrs. Brown, even though I love her). 

 

Elizabeth came with me to Morehead because she wanted to visit Grandma, stay in her house on the pull out couch is not to be pulled out when she is sleeping on it, and hang out with Ansley the next day).  Sunday she hung out with just Mom while I did the Junior Miss events.  The two of them shopped, ate, and went to The Internship, which Elizabeth highly recommends. 

The next day was quite the long (more than 12 hours of judging) yet intruiging day, as the five of us judges started by having brunch with the contestants and then the individual interviews began.  Almost five continuous hours later, the interviews ended.  Then dinner.  Then the pageant, to which Steven came!  The former winners introduced themselves and we judges were very briefly interviewed. 

The judging was surprisingly stressful, because you realized how much your perceptions and evaluations affected every outcome of the voting.  The pageant itself was almost 4 hours long; Mom showed up just as the winners were being announced (Alex Northcutt won.).  We got back after midnight.  I am sworn to secrecy regarding the voting and evaluations and discussions.  You'll have to threaten my life to get that information out of me.  I loved the experience, though, and hope I was fair, consistent, and accurate in terms of evaluating the quality of contestants.  I would love to do it again.  Especially if Mrs. Brown lets me sit where I want, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.