A Dance in '65

The day started like any other Saturday and the agenda was the same as every other Saturday of that period of my life. Work until five, go home shower and change into my black chino's and on this particular night I remember wearing a black and grey Oleg Cassini shirt, My favorite shirt that happened to belong to my older brother Jack, much like the ones that Charlie Harper wears on the sitcom 'Two and a Half Men', black loafers and..Shudderrr, white socks. Brylcreem the hair, a la Elvis and out the door to meet the guys at Fatso's Diner for he best cheeseburger in the Universe.

Sitting in the back booth (our booth ), Brian, John and I were plugging nickles into the jukebox, listening to Runaround Sue, Runaway, Chantilly lace, and waiting for Gary to show up with his wheels. A '55 yellow and black Ford Fairlane convertible and hoping that he scored some beer for the dance. Gary worked at Bronco's Auto Wrecking after school and on Saturdays. It just so happened that Bronco ran an after hours unlicensed poker and bootleg establihment, so it was no problem getting booze as long as we had the money and kept our mouths shut if caught drinking underage.

We pulled into the parking lot of the social club around 9:00 p.m, It was really only three or four CPR boxcars joined
together on the outskirts of town and made into a community club for local teenagers. There were no houses nearby to be bothered by loud music and hollywood mufflers, but the best thing about it was that there was no Adult supervision. The dance was run by older teens.

The parking lot was full by the time we arrived and as usual there were boys that were too cool to dance sitting on the
fenders of their cars under the single parking lot light drinking beer and talking about what all young boys talk about; girls, cars and sports.There were couples making out in the back seats and a group by the door having a fag in the cool night air. It tended to get hot inside the club because there were no amenities like fans or windows that opened.

Brian and Gary wanted to visit the Jocks while John and I were anxious to get in the dance hall. John had his girlfriend I think her name was Penny waiting for him inside and I wanted to see if Linda D. was there.

Linda was a big city girl whose family moved to our town to run the drive-in restaurant. She was in one of my classes at school but I hadn't spoken to her because she was always surrounded by the inner circle who had claimed her as their own. She was rich and beautiful and dressed in a manner that had all the old matrons clucking their tongues and shaking their
heads at her short skirts, two inches above the knee, and tight sweaters, All the young studs were tripping over their tongues. You can include me in that group only memory and old photos are tetament to the sad fact that I wasn't very studly.

I remember paying admission at the door and getting my hand stamped with a little green star and that the colored lights were flashing around the hall. This usually meant that a specialty dance was coming up. As I turned to take my place along the wall with the rest of the dipshits, there she was in front of me, smiling with her pink frosted lips, and laughing brown eyes, smelling of mild soap and Juicy Fruit. "Ladies Choice", she said.

Do I remember what song they played? You bet I do! It was one of those few moments in one's life that can only be defined as Serendipity. We danced to 'If you need me' by Solomon Burke. I remember she was wearing a soft pink mohair sweater and it felt like I was holding a baby rabbit. She cuddled up real close to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear; "If I waited for you to make the first move it would never happen." She was probably right. We danced every dance that night. We did the locomotion with little Eva, Twisted to Chubby Checker and Jived to a song by a new group from England. I walked her home that night, I think I floated and received my first kiss from the frosted lips of Linda D.