Thursday, November 11, 2010
My teenage years die just a little
An obscure actress named Michelle Nicastro has just died after a ten year battle with breast cancer. She was just 50, and a class ahead of me. When you are "perhaps best known" as the girl who introduced Harry and Sally -- a manifestly bit part -- you are -- sorry -- not a big wheel.
But Michelle Nicastro's death makes me a little sad. In 1978, when I was just 16, my then all-boys prep school put on a rather good production of South Pacific in a joint venture with a local girls school. Michelle Nicastro, then a senior, played the female lead, Nellie Forbush, and blew us all away. She was to our hormone-addled brains absolutely gorgeous, with a voice that would cause lions to lie down with lambs and -- this was important then -- absolutely awesome breasts. Breasts that would one day take her life.
Suffice it to say that I was not the only boy at Lawrenceville then who had a crush-from-afar on Michelle. Those among my classmates who read this blog might want to say a little prayer tonight, for a little bit of our blessed teenaged years has died, and we have been reminded, again, of our mortality.
Michelle Nicastro, may you rest in peace.
11 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Nov 11, 10:15:00 PM:
By , at
Fri Nov 12, 12:08:00 AM:
The folks most of us live, love, cry and die for are not the big wheels. They are the little wheels history forgets. They are no less beautiful for having lived as they were.
M.E.
By , at
Fri Nov 12, 12:49:00 AM:
I was trying to think of who had breasts when we were in Iowa City. I think actually that thunderthigh margaret poepsel did. (sp?) When I was in East Lansing, the girl with the locker next to mine did (and everything else to go with it - quite amazing).
But it is hard for me to think of many. I had a good friend in college and she clearly did. Probably off the scale on the breast size to height ratio, often used to judge effective breast size.
Maybe you can remind me of someone else who stands out, so to speak. Oh that's right. We stopped on the college tour at some aunt or great aunt of yours, and her grand-daughter at age 14 had fabulous amazing breasts. I still remember her, after less than 24 hours of contact - or, rather, no contact.
I suppose I preferred the tall, thin look then (Elizabeth Montgomery, for instance). But still, you'd think I could think of someone.
Actually the women on my mom's side of the family, I realized later in life, tend to...
By 
TigerHawk, at
Fri Nov 12, 01:05:00 AM:
@Anon 10:15, that's my memory.
@Billy Bob, that was a little on the personal side.
By Bomber Girl, at
Fri Nov 12, 06:29:00 AM:
Nothing wrong with a bit of admiration for the human physique, female or male, but if you are going to reduce a person's life to one part of the anatomy, you could probably soften the blow by putting a link to a breast cancer cause. If I lose any H.S. hearthrob to prostate cancer, I will be sure to post such a link along with my ode to balls.
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Nov 12, 06:44:00 AM:
Well, BG, I'm fairly sure this post wasn't an "ode" and in any case, I only really knew Michelle Nicastro by her voice and the, er, consequences of her dancing on stage, but if you insist...
By Bomber Girl, at
Fri Nov 12, 06:51:00 AM:
thanks, TH. Her two daughters may thank you.
By rcw, at
Fri Nov 12, 07:00:00 AM:
Thank you, Bomber Girl. Well spoken
By , at
Fri Nov 12, 07:25:00 AM:
Years ago, I had business dealings with a man who was married to a former Miss California. I met his wife one day. Although she was in her early forties, with three teenaged sons, she was still a stunner with an athletic body and a great rack. She was wonderfully friendly and smart, too. She had a masters degree, I don't remember in what. Some years later, I ran into her husband. He told me she had developed cancer in both breasts. Her oncologist told her that she needed a radical mastectomy immediately to have any chance of survival. Her personal identity was too wrapped up in her beautiful body. She refused the surgery and died a few months later.
By , at
Fri Nov 12, 07:44:00 AM:
Since my wife's family has seen breast cancer kill her mother, grandmother, a great aunt, and an aunt, she is very careful about seeking any early signs of the illness. Survival rates are somewhat dependent on when the cancer is discovered, as you all probably know, and seeking help early means this can now be a very manageable form of cancer.
I am so sorry for her daughters. They will miss their mother I am sure, and often. So too for her husband.
By pam, at
Fri Nov 12, 09:06:00 AM:
Seconding RCW. Well-said, Bomber Girl. And M.E.
Those lasting impressions are "our" big wheels...
Thanks for bringing me back in time, TH. Even if it was a different time than yours!
