So much excitement – I was a freshman in high school and it was time for our first dance of the year.
This took place in the 1950s and it was to be a semiformal dance. This meant the girls wore dressy dresses, nylon stockings and high heels, while the boys would wear suits and ties.
Having made it through the hardscrabble times of the Depression, my parents were not about to buy me a dressy dress to wear for one time only. I borrowed my cousin’s green taffeta dress; thankfully, we were the same size. I practiced walking in high heels, but I was quite awkward.
Our theme for the dance was the Starlight Ball, so we began decorating the gym where the dance would be held. We hung navy blue fabric on the walls of the gym and then pasted on silver stars. We added a big silver moon. With the lights in the gym down low, we thought it was romantic.
The night of the dance I arrived in my borrowed dress, feeling self-conscious and not even daring to have a cup of punch, afraid I would spill it on my cousin’s best dress.
The silver stars and moon were shining in the dim light, Elvis was singing “Love Me Tender” and a boy I had a crush on asked me to dance. It was a slow dance and he held me close. I was nervous and I don’t think I said two words. We danced together all evening. I was on cloud nine, a teenager in love.
Still basking in the glow of first love and that wonderful time at the dance, I was infatuated when I went home that night.
The next day I heard my heartthrob had walked another girl home after the dance.
Oh, the teenage angst.
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