In middle school, I got asked to go to the dance. I was a sixth grader and every grade could go. I still remember what I wore: navy pants, a tan camp shirt, chunky red wood beaded necklace with matching earrings and a pair of red flats. My hair was perfectly done(I thought) and had the right amount of White Rain or Aqua Net hairspray on it to make that helmety look. Flashback a week earlier, I was on the bus back from the regional science fair at ETSU in Johnson CIty, TN. My presentation on spiders had not placed, but I got to eat junk food from a concession stand at a university...so it was a win-win. We were playing Truth or Dare, which I despise, in the bus on the way home. I was sitting next to Chris G. and we were dared to hold hands for 10 minutes. After the ten minutes were up, he continued to hold my hand, so of course this was just amazing. We decided to meet at the dance the next week and be each other's "date". My mom made sure I felt good about the outfit I wore and was very patient during my freak outs whilst getting ready. My friends and I rode together in the back of some sort of SUV, I can't remember whose, and primped each other up until the point of arrival. Chris was there when we arrived, looking cleaned up in probably some khakis and an Izod shirt with some Docksiders on I think. We danced maybe two fast dances kind of around each other, you know middle schoolers, and then a slow dance started. He said he would get us some punch and I was left to discuss his kind manners with my friends as they were doing the same of their "dates". Their dates returned with their drinks. Mine didn't, but we were all doing that friends forming a circle dancing with each other thing and I didn't think much of it. The time stretched to an uncomfortable length and I began to worry a bit. DeBarge's "Rythym of the Night" came on the sound system. I walked across the gym towards the refreshments and the bathrooms. "Look out on the street now, the party's just beginning..."...I walked a little farther...."A night for romance, a night you won't forget...". I looked up. In the dark stands, there stood Chris and Suzanne T. exploring what each had eaten for dinner that night, apparently, as tightly locked as they were. They took a breath, looked at me, both grinned and went back to work. "Tonight is gonna be a night like you've never known...". No kidding. I was devastated. Humiliated. Crestfallen. Then there were Chris and Suzanne sightings all over various parts of the gym area. "Hey Jenny? Someone some Chris and Suzanne making out in Coach Mo's office." "Hey! Did you know Suzanne was kissing Chris next to the concession stand." I was trapped. The parents had gone out to eat and were picking us up after. I didn't want to ruin my friends' dance, but the tears came quickly. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't escape my utter devastation and humiliation. My mom picked me up, I got in the car and fell apart. My mother held me and stroked my hair. My father paced and said, "I'm so sorry, Ladybug." My brother looked murderous. I cried myself to sleep and had that sick tummied feeling the next day and again on Monday when I had to face him at school.
Did the world end? No. Was he the love of my life? No. Did I end up with a wonderful husband and a beautiful family and Chris and Suzanne can go shove it? Yes. What is the reason for this post? Why now? My oldest is going to a kind of prom in May to bid a somewhat fond farewell to middle school. As of now, she and some friends are going as each others' dates which I think is great. Lots of her friends have dates and that is fine too. I just want her first fancy legit dance to be a happy experience with fun and laughter and positivity. I am 43 years old and I honestly think one thing: I will be in Shady Grove nursing home with an adult diaper on, watching a neverending loop of Wheel of Fortune unable to recognize my family members and if DeBarge's "Rythym of the Night" comes on, I will want to be physically ill. I have to turn the channel or leave the area if that song comes on now...and I am a happily married woman. I would love for a sweet boy to ask my daughter to the dance, but not if she has to have a DeBarge experience like I did. My heart still hurts for my middle school self. Luckily, my girl is fine to go with her friends. She also has better sense than I do. Don't ever settle for a Truth or Dare date to the dance, girls. Not a great way to start a relationship.
Night all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Ugh....for me it was Crimson and clover over and over (now do that falsetto wavy tone and say "crimson and clova ova and ova, British like). Apparently it was part of the 1968 Olympics to tell a girl, any girl that Jim Braasch liked you. A lot, and you should go to the bus in the front of school, not your bus on the side of school and he will wait for you and walk you to your bus. Except his bus was leaving and the cool girls were laughing and Jim Braasch was laughing and your bus was leaving. Without you on a Friday and your mom, who drove to town once a year had to pick you up. I cried and my mom thought I was crying cuz I missed the bus....ova and ova crimson and clover..I always made sure I was there without judgement for my daughter...loved the post. Adrienne.
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