Edge of the Frame

We often capture strangers in photos we take in public. Open your photo library, and stop at the first picture that features a person you don’t know. Now tell the story of that person

Cecilia got up late. She was at least half an hour behind her normal routine, and she had to fix her hair before she could think of doing anything with her make up. As she struggled with her hot rollers and the clamps that held them in place, she thought about what it was like before the 1960’s when a woman had to deal with fixing her hair in a hurry. No hot rollers available back then.

“Probably just scrape it back into a bun,” she thought with a shudder. She remembered when her mom had painstakingly “set” her hair with bobbie pins; zillions of little curls wound around a finger, then secured with two crossed pins, all over her head. The result, of course, was very cool in 1940, but not today. Nosirree, no Shirley Temple curls these days.

When the rollers cooled, Cecie began to unclamp them and unroll them from her long, thick hair. Setting the curlers back on the pegs in their case, she shook her head and began to brush the curls into a flip, the style of choice for any fashion-conscious young lady. Of course, the top had to be teased into full volume, but that didn’t take long. The result was very big hair, sprayed to stay exactly the same all day, with the ends turned upward. Satisfied, Cecie started to work on her face. There would be no breakfast this morning, she thought, but that wasn’t nearly as important as getting the pancake foundation just right, and the blue eye shadow, and the almost- colorless lipstick.