BATHING BEAUTY
by
Jenny Todd

The midday sun shone on the footpath and something glinted back. I picked it up. It was a little trinket that someone must have had attached to their watch perhaps. It was a girl in a bathing costume. She is seated with her knees drawn up and her arms behind her to support her. She looks as if she is wearing a bathing cap of green diamante and some sort of garment on her nether regions also in green diamante. Her pert little breasts are naked but very demure. She is made of silver-coloured metal, which is quite smooth, and the edges are rounded and nicely finished. You have to look at the back to see that it really is a cheap little object. I love the contrast between the elegant, smooth body and the knobbly diamante.
Often when I find objects I give them to my grandchildren, like the little metal human-shaped figure with a red heart in the middle, which became a necklace for my younger granddaughter when put with some alphabet beads by her older sister. She wears it from time to time. Or the piece of greenstone, I suppose you could call it a tiki, that was accepted with pleasure by one of the grandsons, though I doubt whether he ever wears it. I offered my little bathing beauty to the girls but they were having none of it. I think they considered it a little too raunchy, because they averted their heads and gave a very decided No. So I decided to put it on a chain and wear it myself. I thought the fresh green would be quite pretty with summer garments. But it was winter and I put it aside and forgot about it.
When the summer came I suddenly thought about it and decided to wear it. I went walking with a friend that day. This friend is an artist. She has no money but such an amazing sense of style that she always looks like a million dollars even though her clothes come from opportunity shops and chain stores. Once I was given tickets to a performance in the Melbourne Concert Hall and invited Caroline along. She was waiting for me when I arrived looking a picture of glamour and elegance. I instantly felt dowdy and frumpish. Yet when I looked closely I noticed that her elegant pants were cotton cargo pants and her black top was interlock cotton, although the low-cut neck and three quarter sleeves gave it a bit of evening glamour. Over everything she had draped a scarf or shawl with no other adornment.
Our walks always end up at a coffee shop and on this day we were drinking our coffee when a woman came up to me and said,
‘I love your glamour girl’.
I was delighted until my friend looked at me quizzically and said,
‘You’d really have to be in the mood to wear that’.
Call me crass if you like, call me cheap. I like my bathing beauty. I find I am often in the mood to wear her. She doesn’t go unnoticed. She gets a lot of attention.