The Story of Emily Little’s Act 3 Costume Jazz Parade for Democracy (11/01/2025)

This is a snippet I cut from the main interview, but an amusing sidebar I thought some might enjoy (minimal audio or text editing done on it).... enjoy! -- dan

THE COSTUME (Photo by Rebecca George Photography, used with permission)

Dan Doernberg: Do you want to say just a word about your costume?

Emily: Oh, yeah, I should say a word about my costume. It's fun, because I'm a big thrifter, and so a lot of my things are, you know, are from various places, but I had this, like, black sort of union suit on the way down, which was great, because that covered my whole other costume pretty completely. And that was actually a hand me down from one of my nieces so I feel like it's very cool, because it was my niece’s, and she's in her early 20s, so she clearly knows what's up? Or maybe she doesn't like it anymore, so I'm not that cool, but whatever.

[0:36] I just love, like, the way the community is. I have these crazy, colorful Converse that I want to wear as my shoes for the thing, but I feel like I can't have those showing… and then this woman, Jean Marie, she had some black booties that could cover them. She uses them when she's painting in her house or whatever, and they're reusable because she cares about not using single use things. So she let me borrow those. And then on the way back, when I was in a more fun outfit, it was a little bit more “marching band-esque”, is the way I would describe it. I had, like a thrifted blue sweater that I added some USA patches to.

[1:12] My favorite part is that I wore these pants that were actually from my elementary school. We found them. This is like crazy that I still have these bands. So we found them when I was in seventh grade, our gym teacher was a very fun guy, Mr. Watson, and he, like, let us go in the big like closet, and we found these, like 1970s band pants that no one had worn for who knows how long anyways. So he let us take them.

[1:43] I then lost the pair that I had. But then my friend Nina, a few years ago, went through a box in the basement at her parents’ house and found her pair that she had. So they like resurfaced, and so she brought them to me, because she was like, “I will never probably wear these, but you are our one friend who might find an occasion to wear these!” And they were blue and white, so they were just perfect, but they were from the Mount Desert Elementary School Mustang closet, so they lived on. So it was fun. I sort of felt like they held on to them just so that I could have wear them on that day. But maybe I'll get to wear them again..

[2:19] Dan: In 40 years. I will be leading a band and then [will] need these pants…

Emily: And then need these pants? Like, what? How can that be?

Dan: Talk about planning and forethought…

Emily: Yeah, and that they needed to live in someone's basement for a while, because I would have lost them in my 20s. You know…

Dan: So does Nina know about this happy ending?

Emily: She does know. We've known each other since we were three, and she's still one of my best friends. So she gets updated. I sent her some pictures of the pants in action.

Dan: I'm just making sure.

DMU Timestamp: December 17, 2025 02:57

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