school dance

     

           today we worry how we made it through a lot of things. radioactive fallout , lead paint , lead in our gas, lead in our pencil , and lead in our ass, now as we get older. seems like we are always trying to get the lead out as your dad used to say when you were a teenager. but i think for all the evils that long hair and mini skirts , brought to us , none could surpass the school dance . i still think i am irreparably damaged  by those trying moments in the 4th grade when we had to learn to dance. 

         it was usually the chance for some young over zealous teacher to take care of not only her class but 2 others while the older and wiser teachers ran to the teacher lounge to smoke cigarettes and talk about the new blood. kind of like a snipe hunt or mass babysitting for the newbie. 

         the girls would line up on one side and the boys on the other and an invisible line was drawn in the gym floor. one that neither sex would cross . no matter how much you  liked the girl in the paisley dress, or she liked the guy with the long hair down to his neck. how rebel she thinks. 

       in a classroom sitting behind the girl with the paisley dress you surely had no problem asking her questions , or even joking with her. and many times you had to be hushed to keep quiet. but here on the dance floor it was different. to be seen out there with one another is like a death sentence. you will be forever linked to the girl with the paisley dress . and she will twirl her fingers in your long hair and you will graduate and marry in 8 years  and have 2.5 kids and live in white house with a picket fence. oh i forgot you will live happily ever after. man that invisible line in the gym floor is like a chasm that just opens wider. surely it will save me and engulf me and like in the wizard of oz,  i will wake up and everything is fine, just a little storm damage. 

       and you look over at the girl with the paisley dress and she sees you looking and quickly you look away . only to shyly peek up and see her  looking a little hurt. you think to yourself now why she should look so forlorn . i guess it is because i have not enough guts to ask her to dance. but really she shouldnt feel bad . as hard as the new teacher would try there was no takers for the dance floor. she could get the girls up and fast dance and some of the guys would dance with each other. and so was the school dance on a friday afternoon , girls on one side boys on the other, and half the teachers camping out in a smoke filled lounge , bragging about how hard they work. 

       now you talk about your walk of shame . consider this. you like the girl in the paisley dress as she is cute, and kind of fun as girls go. and you  want to forget everything else and walk across that invisible line and ask the girl with the paisley dress to dance and she sees you and turns her head. you say excuse me there you sweet thing, would you like to dance? to the girl in the paisley dress. and everyone roars with laughter at your awkwardness.you start to shrink and surely it isn't fast enough as here comes the double whammy. she tells you no. 

      no isn't what you figured on and stare in disbelief at this friend in class with whom you shared intimate secrets as to where in your desk you hid the candy, and also the way you ignored those sounds and that foul smell wafting up from under her desk  then you look at her in disbelief as if to say what gives and the girl in the paisley dress says no again before you even have a chance to ask her to reconsider. this is the point where you are supposed to help her out of her chair , instead you turn and face the snickers as all your friends with i told you so faces which were telling on them,

     you look across the gym floor and see where you were sitting a million miles away as now you have to make it there without tripping over your feet. surely that would add to the moment. flushed and red faced  you make it to your seat and your other best friend asks you what happened , and you say her ankle was hurting. you look back at the girl in the paisley dress and she shyly looks at you and  you never forget, and never again you ask her. the process of selection is what we learn. pretty girls with  paisley dresses still play games.and school dances can be killers.