***From Out In The Be-Bop 1950s Rock Night- Bill Haley's Skinnie Minnie

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman 

In an earlier age women were expected to be a little more voluptuous than the Minnie of Bill Haley’s cover song. (It was only fifty some years ago, although that amount of time is probably an eternity in the fashion world, female variety, probably enough time to make such fashions retro now if a quick look around lately is any indication.) Arguably busty and hippy Marilyn Monroe was the model for from hunger Great Depression (1930s variety) and back from World War II fathers in the 1950s and that “wisdom” filtered down to the sons, or some sons. My boyhood personal preference, corner boyhood in front of Doc’s Drugstore hanging out making a profession of examining this key question of humankind as various shapes and sticks walked by preference,  on the  subject though was to go for Minnie, skinnie or not, in the teenage battle of "sticks" vs. "shapes." Now this struggle was on top of almost every boy’s mind whether they publically recognized it or not from about twelve when those stick girls started getting a shape and, guess what, started to turn from say just flat-out fifth grade nuisances and bothers to, well, kind of interesting all of a sudden in sixth grade. Of course today such epic battles, such epic pre-teen angst, probably no longer exits, and such doings are probably a figment of some old geezer’s imagination. Yah, right.

Remind me to tell you sometime about how a stick could turn you inside out just as easily as a shape, maybe worse because what were you doing hanging with a stick anyway when there were those interesting shapes to bother your mind.  Actually since I have a minute I will tell you now. See that Doc’s Drugstore that I mentioned a minute ago had a juke box and a soda fountain and therefore was a natural attraction for every music hungry kid (and food too, remember those odd-ball school lunches that left us permanently incapable of eating good food, or it seemed like it) from Hullsville Elementary School (and later from Hullsville Junior High next door but this is about the earlier period). So one day Susie Johnson  (we all had such vanilla names in those days, I was called Francis for chrissake, in that old white bread town but I think everybody had such square names even black kids) came strolling by.

Now Susie was nothing but a stick in those days, since she had been, ah, slow to develop, if you know what I mean, but, truth, I was stuck on her, stuck on her bad, as bad as a man (oops, boy) could be stuck on a girl ever since she turned from a nuisance to, well, like I said before, kind of interesting. But see, interesting or not, what Susie had was great lips, very great lips. And the reason that I knew that hard fact was because a few weeks before the time I am talking about down in Kathy Kelly’s family room, lights out, music playing, some Everly Brothers stuff that everybody, every girl everybody and so every boy who wanted to get anywhere, was crazy for Susie Johnson came over to me and gave me a big kiss from those lips. And so that day she came strolling by my corner (and many previous days as well) I was waiting for her to try her luck again. And she didn’t, not then anyway or anytime soon after that. So don’t tell me in the boy meets girl wars that some skinnie girl can’t twist a man (oops again , boy) around her little finger , don’t tell me that noise at all.                   

****

Skinnie Minnie lyrics-Bill Haley and His Comets

SKINNIE MINNIE - BILLY HALEY & HIS COMETS

Well my skinnie minnie has a clay as a cheek

And I was 6 feet high and one foot thin

And now I do I love her, does a boy love pie?

Well now and she has the eye pull over my eye

Skinnie Minnie she's skinnie

She ain't tall, that's all

Well Although her shadow doesn't take much ground

Well now what there is, that really gets her around

And now what are there ahead, there's a lot she'd be

{ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/bill-haley-lyrics/skinnie-minnie-lyrics.html }

And now and she may not weight too much for me

Skinnie Minnie she's skinnie

She ain't tall, that's all

Well now it's hard being slimmer than a fishing pole

She (has) one hair blond and the other hair brown

And now I did the other cheek from the other side

And now I found the old yard where did she hideah,

Skinnie Minnie she's skinnie

She ain't tall, that's all