Middle School Dances

I was chatting with a friend recently...and the subject of middle school dances came up...and I briefly sketched out for her a rundown of how middle school dances went (she was Baptist and wasn't allowed to dance). Thought I'd share.

Everyone would bring their cassette singles of their favorite slow dance songs...the dances at least up until late high school were usually at someone's parent's house...in the living room...usually one of the wealthier kids...they would push the furniture to the wall...I would usually bring the stereo if the house didn't have one...no CD's...it was always cassettes. So, the guys would put on too much cologne, their braided belts, their best polo shirt and khaki Dockers pants...a bit of mousse in the hair to keep it in place. The girls...usually too-tight acid-washed jeans, high heels they couldn't walk in...frilly tops, waaaaay too much perfume...and we'd all stand around the perimeter of the room against the wall for a while. Guys on one side, just chilling...looking too cool..the girls would be whispering and giggling

We'd take turns putting the tapes in...usually some Pearl jam, some Spin Doctos, etc...for a while...there'd be chips and onion dip, Coke AND Pepsi...and maybe M and M's...if we were lucky...to cover up the onion dip breath

So, after maybe 30 or 40 minutes, someone would get up the nerve to get a slow dance tape out of the pile and put it in.

Maybe "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor

or

"Winds of Change" by The Scorpions

or

Maybe "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

About halfway into the first verse, one guy would get up the nerve to go across the room and ask a girl to "slow dance"...another would follow, etc...until all 6 of us guys were "slow dancing" with a girl.

We had 6 guys and 12 girls...so, we had to work twice as hard to make sure everyone got danced with an equal number of times throughout the nite.

"Slow Dancing" consisted of being at arm's length from each other...arms stretched out...hers would be around your neck...yours on her hips...but not too low...that would be scandulous...and not too far back. So, we'd do a few slow dances, then everyone would migrate back to the walls for some Stone Temple Pilots...and after awhile, it would start all over again.

Usually, by the end of the nite, there would be a new short-lived couple formed

For some reason, these memories are VERY vivid...these middle school slow dances.

The high school dances do not stand out as much.
At some point, the dances started being in the cafeteria at school...and we'd have DJ's that would play the top dance hits...it was about the same though...there was less cologne, untucked shirts, and the slow dances were much closer. Every once in a while, one of us guys would get a wild hair to bust a move...but, being that we had no black kids, it wasn't a good move...and it didn't last very long.

Thank goodness

I think that's all I have to say about it. That went on way longer than I thought it would.