Finding My Bawdy Baubo

It was both furniture and TV, as they were back in the late 1960s. It also had a record player in it, screen in the middle with speakers on either side.  It stood on small tapered legs and was long enough to take up the whole wall.

I was young enough to be wearing frilly underpants and no taller than the TV which I stood in front of like it was a stage.   My sister and brother, 2 and 3 years older than me were my audience.

I danced for them to imaginary music, then turned my back, lifted my dress and wiggled my ruffled ass at them.  They laughed so much I did it again and again. I can’t remember exactly, but I get the feeling  I may have even pulled my underpants down and mooned them.   Not that I knew what mooning someone was at the time.

Eventually, my mother told me not to do it anymore.  At the time I didn’t understand why (now I believe it was good advice) but I remember feeling embarrassed about it.

I had forgotten all about this until a couple of months ago Jon said something playfully obnoxious to me and I turn my back to him, lifted up my dress and wiggled my ass at him.  I didn’t think about it, it just seemed the best response, better than any words I could come up with.

The memory from my childhood came to me first then the proud realization that I have a bit of Bawdy Baubo in me.

Baubo is the Greek goddess who brought Demeter out of the depression she was in from losing her daughter, Persephone, to Hades the god of the underworld. She did this by making Demeter laugh by pulling up her skirts and showing her vulva.

Baubo is known as the Bawdy Goddess, telling dirty jokes and using her sexuality to make people laugh by bringing balance to their lives during difficult times.

Wiggling my ass at Jon was so basic, such an instinctual reaction that made us both laugh.

It took me over fifty years to find the Bawdy Baubo in me (who was obviously there from an early age)  but I finally got her back.