How watching a Dolly Parton movie at the age of ten made me realize I always need to have a backup plan
My favorite movie as a child centered around a group of…ahem…women of the night. that were in danger of losing their shared home.
It was 1982 and I was 8.
The movie? @dollyparton’s
“The Best Little Wh$rehouse in Texas.”
I did not see this movie at the theater though, I saw it by borrowing the DVD from Clevenger’s market in Morristown, Tennessee. Clevengers carried everything you could ever need: diapers for your baby, a chek cola and even pickled eggs in a giant glass jar.
Me and my cousin Connie slapped our change onto the counter where the clerk slid the plastic DVD case over to us. We then skipped back to her mother’s trailer 2 miles down the dirt road. We waited for her mother to leave for her night shift at Magnavox, and we popped the tape into the DVD player that was in the only TV they owned. It was also in her mother’s bedroom.
It was the first time I saw women so “at ease”. It was also the fist time I saw a black woman singing on TV.
And while I caught the plot of the movie pretty quickly at the beginning, I still did not know WHAT they were doing to make money.
But it didn’t matter.
The LESSON I learned from that movie was to:
- Stick together: these women lived communally and shared everything- even at the end they helped eachother pack!
2. Use what you have: I didn’t know what their talent was, but they seemed to be good at it because they had lots of customers- even the Sheriff! 😂 They identified their strengths and used them to earn income.
3. And if things don’t work out? Have a second plan. The song says “Maybe I’ll learn to sew…”
Let’s Get Sentered in embracing our (legal!) talents and always having another plan ready to launch.
