They say that you can never have enough pageants, and that is probably true, as more and more contestants compete for the honor of representing a municipality, a fruit or or a vegetable of note in Northwest Florida.
However, just as you have come to terms with all the standard opportunities for mothers to vicariously live out their childhood dreams of success through their young daughters, they come up with even more pageant-style contests.
Driven in large part by the gown industry, these pageants are indeed a cash cow, with (almost) everybody coming away with something.
Many of these competitions have thankfully strayed away from the historical cheesecake ideals of beauty and expensive dresses to make room for athleticism, scholastic achievement and the ability to carry on a conversation, but in this age of ‘everybody gets a trophy’, we find ourselves applauding for ‘Miss Photogenic’ and ‘Ms. Over 50’, both of which can get pretty interesting.
Here in Northwest Florida we tend to have more sedate tastes, so we typically stick to the usual fare of ‘Little Miss’, Little Mister’, ‘Teen Miss So-and So’, etc., etc. but we still get a surprise once in a while.
None can compete (no pun intended) however, with some of the more unusual pageants found elsewhere, including ‘Miss Land Mine’, ‘Miss American Vampire’, and ‘Miss Alternative Lifestyle’, which, although in the spirit of ‘live and let live’ we should probably applaud for effort, are still a little disconcerting.
So whether you pine to represent a marsupial or a vegetable, you want to wear the crown honoring the ubiquitous goober or a wild flower, you can be sure that there will be a long line of stage mothers (and fathers) interested in thrusting their offspring onto that lighted stage, miming visual cues from the grandstands, as the flash bulbs pop in sync to the paparazzi dance for images.
Here are a few photos from some of our past local heritage pageants, as seen by Real Florida Media, a subsidiary of The Goulding Agency in Chipley, Florida, and yes, we are poking a little fun at ourselves as well as everyone involved in these events.
See more photos on Facebook at Real Florida Magazine, and listen to interviews from these events, along with interviews with business owners, community leaders and event organizers on FPTC Radio, the voice of Florida Panhandle Technical College at www.FPTCRadio.com.
