Hot carnauba!

Aunt Shirley came to visit us sometimes when I was very little. Aunt Shirley was memorable because she painted her toenails, and sometimes mine, too, in Candy Apple Red polish. I remember nothing else about her visits in the late Fifties beyond the yellowed mental snapshots of Shirley and Mom on the patio, and the smell of nail polish.

Preschoolers love nail polish, as I learned forty-five years ago. For performance day I did my nails in a splendid purple chrome polish. The kids were in awe, although the polish is reminiscent of an amateurish Cub Scout Pinewood Derby car.


Sally Hansen's "Royal Purple Chrome No. 10" is the exact same color as a dorm acquaintance's Plymouth Barracuda. Or Baccaruda, if you can't say "Barracuda". Or just say, "Rhino Boots". The Fruit of the Loom grape purple Baccaruda wore some groovy Seventies Rhino Boots for campus parking violations.