"L" is for Lola

I was really tempted to write about lipstick.  If you look lipstick up on Wikipedia, you will find some interesting facts on the history of lipstick in the United States.  For example, in the 1960's lipstick was seen as a display of femininity so if a woman didn't wear lipstick, she was likely a lesbian.  I also found that in the 1920's red lipstick was very popular and the outline of a womans lips represented cupid's bow.

My daughter, Suzanne, convinced me to write about my name instead as I have had many a man and sometimes women serenade me because of it.  I've always been quiet and somewhat shy which probably encouraged singers.  They were singing, but I was the one squirming with discomfort.  People don't seem to care about whether they belong in a choir or not when they serenade me.  I should personally thank Barry Manilow for the song he made popular, "Her name was Lola . She was a show girl with yellow feathers in her hair And a dress cut down to there..."   The Kinks made L-O-L-A  popular as well, but the song ends in a strange way so Barry Manilow's song is more popular with my serenaders.  Older people remember the song "What Lola Wants Lola Gets"  I learned the first couple lines of the song from them.  I see there is a Pepsi commercial using that song now.  I'm no longer in my twenties so maybe I'll escape the singing. 

I was named after my mother's mother and never thought of my name as being spanish.  When I lived in Illinois, I went for a job interview-- a social service job.  I  remember sitting in a waiting room feeling very scandinavian.  Everyone that walked by me spoke spanish and didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes like me.   I was called in for the interview and was shown to a chair in front of a panel of dark haired brown eyed people.  Blink. Blink.  How was I to explain why I was right for the job?  I asked myself how I got myself in that mess.  Then it dawned on me, they assumed I was hispanic because my name was Lola.  Talk about awkward...