The Colors of Suzy Q

I had to go clothes shopping again today for Suzy Q, and I think I'm getting her style down. She likes pinks, purples and greens; or, to be more exact, hot pink, fuchsia and chartreuse. Very vibrant colors for a very stylish lady.

Suzy Q is a puppet I created for our church's children's ministry in "The Village," a local housing project, which we first made contact with when we did a VBS in their Recreation Center last summer. My wife and I were not part of the original team planning to follow up this ministry, but when decisions were made to no longer offer a children's section to the Thursday Night Alpha Classes, we hooked up with this Tuesday night outreach up the hill. Scripts were already planned for a male and female team of puppets, but no one but me had any puppets. And, at that stage, the bulk of my human puppets were store-bought and (consequently) all white-skinned. There are, of course, some whites who live in The Village, but the kids we've had the most interaction with have largely been African-American or bi-racial, so it seemed a good time to create some darker-skinned puppets. I had started working on an African male puppet prior to this decision and assignment, who debuted as Pharaoh's charioteer in a Sunday School play about Moses. "Akil," as he was then called, was smart enough to tell Pharaoh he'd have to drive himself if he wanted to pursue the Israelites into the Red Sea. He took the role of "Sam Wow" in the six-week program we called "Winterfest." But he needed a partner, and so I created a slightly lighter skinned woman with long hair done up with beads, long eyelashes, brilliant pink lips (tinged with purple), dark pink fingernails and zebra-striped glasses. Suzy Q was written as a reporter, and I took that to mean a television reporter, so I went for a strong sense of style. I managed to find a trench coat for her (size 3T--too good to pass up!), but needed a top to go under it and peak through the V-neck. What I found was white, with a plaid pattern including some pink, purple and green. And that was her costume throughout "Winterfest."

When we started up again around Easter with "Springfest" we decided to adapt an existing curriculum, which had our duo traveling around the world exploring God's creation. The first week, they were in Antarctica, for which Suzy got a fur hat (looking like something out of Dr. Zhivago), a white fur trimmed vest and a purple coat. Last week she was back in her trenchcoat, working as an archaeologist in the Egyptian desert, but this week they were in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil. It occurred to me I had NO IDEA what people in Brazil wore when hiking through the rainforest, and several pages worth of Google Image results got me no closer than when I'd begun. But I headed off to the thrift store anyways, and one of the first things I saw was this bright green floppy sunhat. Next I found a scarf with the pink, purple and green kind of plaid pattern similar to her original top. I finished off the ensemble with a green tank top, covered by a blouse/jacket with a similar pattern to the scarf, but with pink being more dominant. I still have no idea what most people would wear on a trip up the Amazon, but I know what Suzy Q would wear.

Now, if I could just apply this new-found fashion sense to what to buy for my wife and daughter...