Member-only story
TRUE STORY
Becoming Vanna White
A child’s aspirations of becoming a celebrity come into focus when she meets her idol
As my dad drove us to our destination, I clung to my hardcover book with sweaty palms. Before we left the house, he had asked if I had a Sharpie so that she could sign my copy. I grabbed the marker from the junk drawer and stuffed it in the pocket of my jeans.
Because Dad was my companion, we took his 1987 Chevy Nova. It was a manual and his driving was jerky, with sudden, abrupt jolts and starts. We were headed to a part of town where we rarely ventured, to a discount furniture supply store called Unclaimed Freight.
I can recite the audio from commercials for Unclaimed Freight to this day, thirty years later. A man’s deep voice intoning — Come on down to UN — Claimed — FREIGHT! –in this staccato recitation that, for some reason, stuck in one’s mind like flypaper.
It was so exciting, this trip to the furniture supply store. I’d never met a celebrity before, and we weren’t just going to meet any celebrity. She was the woman I wanted to be when I grew up. To six-year-old me, Vanna White was aspirational.
Every night, my family ate dinner at the eat-in-kitchen table while the news played on the TV in the family room. When we…
