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| Put on your dancing shoes. Image courtesy of Mei Teng Wong, rgbstock.com |
Well, not really. Far from it, actually. I couldn't keep a beat to save my life. In fact I still can't.
But my lack of dancing ability didn't stop me from going to all the junior high dances. Dad, my reluctant chauffeur, would drop me off at the glamorous dance hall (really the slightly malodorous elementary school gym), and I would flail around to the music with the best of them. I didn't know what I was doing, but I always had fun.
I have so many great memories of those dances. Here's a short piece I wrote about one of them:
Junior high dances: kids packed into the elementary school gym, DJ blasting music, disgruntled teachers stuck with chaperoning duty wandering around, pushing couples out of dark corners and eyeing the dance floor. I was there that night with Matt, the "love" of my seventh-grade life, and the gym was hot and the pop was warm and the DJ played "Mony Mony," some of the kids chanting the non-PG audience participation parts until Mr. S, that squat, toadish English teacher, pulled the plug on the song (and nearly the dance) and then glared at us from his post by the door.
Ah, memories!
Nowadays, I'm not much of a dancer. I'm too self-conscious of my lack of ability and usually avoid the dance floor at all costs, even though my poor husband just loves to get out there. I sometimes wish that I could go back to those junior high days when I was either clueless about my lack of skill or just didn't care that I couldn't feel the rhythm. Luckily for me, though, it seems that my daughter, little ballerina that she is, intends to keep my dancing dreams alive.
Finally, just because I can't resist, here's Abba with "Dancing Queen":
Lyrics here.
Did you attend your junior high or high school dances? What memories stand out?
