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Dolly parton sing along11/29/2023 I remained silent, holding Dolly’s book close to my stomach, arms crossed over it so no one would see. A boy among our student crowd all seated on the floor taunted “Oh, Dolly Parton,” and he puffed out his chest, as though he were a girl, and twisted his torso, motioning a movement of large, shaking breasts. The librarian asked again, this time more frustrated. No one else seemed to like Dolly like I did. I was too embarrassed to speak up, to admit I’d checked out the book, shame overcoming me suddenly by the snickering of fellow-classmates around me. The librarian called out again, louder this time, “Dolly Parton, who checked out the Dolly Parton book and needs to return it?” More snickering. When it was time to return the book, and the librarian called out the title, “Dolly Parton…who has the Dolly Parton book?” I heard the children around me snicker, the boys especially, their minds on Dolly’s big chest rather than her sentimental songwriting. I loved her not just for her voice and songwriting, but maybe before anything else, I loved her smile captured on that album cover, so confident yet so sweet. I loved Dolly’s eccentricity! I loved her showy outfits and big bold hair. Excitedly I checked out the book, rushing home to compare the photos in the book with the photos on the album cover. One week while in First-Grade, I discovered a book about Dolly Parton in the school library. Mama ran the vacuum and dusted the living room while the Dolly Parton album played, side A, side B. The other photo showed her standing in a yellow-once-piece flowered-suit.Īs a little girl, I knew her only by this album cover, while the rest of the world seemed to focus just on her physical looks, I sensed in her a deep genuineness. In one photo she wore a red handkerchief gracefully holding her hair. I was also mesmerized by Dolly’s outfits pictured on each album side. The album’s Side A & Side B, I loved them both, never deciding which was my favorite - the lonely chords of “ The Bargain Store”, or the sentimental “ In My Tennessee Mountain Home”. Mama’s album – The Best of Dolly – still had the sticker from her thrift-store purchase.Īs a little girl I’d spend hours looking at Dolly’s album cover while Mama kept busy in the kitchen, making tortillas & beans, the clear sound of beans cooking inside the pressure cooker, it’s sound - pssssssssst – like white-noise in the background. Along with albums of Cornelio Reyna and Crystal Gale, there was, Dolly Parton. To the child version of myself, I’m still sitting on the floor of Rio Grande Elementary’s library floor, legs crisscrossed, seated amongst classmates, quiet, hot-faced, and embarrassed.Īs a young girl growing up in rural New Mexico, I’d often sift through Mama’s record collection, landing on what became one of my favorite albums. And listening to my boy singing a Dolly Parton song on an ordinary day means more than anyone will ever know. To the adult version-of-myself, admitting I love Dolly Parton’s music and image may seem like a small thing, but here’s a secret, una verdad (a truth) - it’s not really a small thing. “…what a way to make a living…” continues his singing, and I smile not only because he knows all the words, but because he has no idea how much the lyrics, the song, the music, and the artist herself have meant to me. “Workin’ 9 to 5…,” sings my little boy, out loud while I cook and he draws in the kitchen only seven years old and he already has a Dolly Parton song stuck in his head. Wed, Jul 5, 2023, 11:17am | By Leeanna Teresa Martinez y Torres Photo Courtesy of Leeanna Torres.Īuthor and contributor, Leeanna Torres. Author holding a piece of history, The Best of Dolly Parton record album.
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