An Apology and Dancing Lessons

I know it has been awhile since posting...life is happily busy. I've been meaning to write about some of my travels (Chili guy sees the world), but that will have to come later....stay tuned!!!!

I usually think of things while I take my early morning/evening walks. The topic above is a little strange and very subjective but here goes.

In the 7th and 8th grades we attended Mrs. Black's Dance Class at Florence Brasser Elementary at the corner of Coldwater Road and Chestnut Drive. It was our first coed activity and everything was new to us. We learned the box step (which has come in very handy at subsequent weddings attended through life) and the rudiments of ballroom dancing (I guess). There was a piano man, and the thing I remember the most is when Mrs. Black would have the boys line up on one side, the girls on the other, and then indicate it was time for the boys to pick their partners. What a scene....boys like birds in multiple V-formations heading for particular girls. When I think about it now, it might have been awful for anyone not chosen quickly (although maybe it was a relief not to have some cloddy boy ask you to have your feet crushed).

Most of the kids seemed to have been from SPX because everyone was pretty familiar. But there were some "outsiders". Most of all, I remember a girl named Connie Westlake who was the mysterious one (braces and all) we all made the bee-line towards. And this is what leads to the name of this entry.

I think that when you sit in the same classroom with 14 or 15 girls for eight years, long hours, every day, those girls become like sisters compared to all the other girls in the world. So, whether it's the mystery girl at the dance class, or the girls in the grade behind, the girls from a neighboring parish, or the cheerleaders from any of the schools we played against in basketball, they always got our attention in the non-sisterly way while we ignored (in a sisterly-way) those cute girls sitting right next to us day in and day out. Maybe it's a universal fact-of-life for schools which keep the same kids together for years and years in the classroom...I would bet that it is so...but in any case, here's my chance to say to you SPX'64 female classmates...sorry for the glances thrown in other directions and for not recognizing more your specialness.

Maybe we need a reunion where we guys can give all our attention to you all for one evening. Or, maybe an evening where you can all ignore us old men while we wish you'd notice us. Oh well, years pass, perspectives change, and all we can do is hope we didn't hurt anybody's feelings in those days when we thought we knew so much and really knew so little.