My First Dance!
The year was 1955. I was about 12-13 years old at this time. I was still too young to have a driver’s license so I hopped a ride along with cousin, Jimmy Joe Kana and my older brother, George, Jr. who at that time drove my dad’s 1947 Chevy. We all went to Plum, which is a few miles northwest of La Grange. That was about as far out of town that I ever got to venture.
On this Sunday night Plum had a picnic hosted by the church and there was a dance scheduled for that night. I can’t recall the name of the band playing that night but at these church picnics which were of the Catholic faith, the bands were of the Czech Polka/ Waltz type. In those days during the dance the norm was for the boys to stand right in the middle of the dance floor. The girls would usually sit or stand along the walls of the dance hall and hope the boys would come and ask for a dance.
There usually were more single girls and boys around than boy-girl couples. A boy would eye a certain girl sitting patiently on the bench and after conjuring up enough courage he might come over and ask for a dance. After the couple danced the set he would say “thank you” and lead her back to her seat.
Another procedure was one which I don’t think would fly too well now a day. When the boys standing in the middle of the floor with the other guys happened to eye a certain girl already dancing with a boy, he would cautiously step into their path, tap the guy on the shoulder and upon her release, he would finish the dance with her. Now this was the normal procedure at this time but needless to say many times if that girl was a “keeper” the boy dancing with her at the time wouldn’t turn loose of her and then there was a minor problem. But we won’t go into that right now. At this time of my life I was a dumb farm kid and had no experience in dancing so I was just standing around with Jimmy and the other guys who were about in the same shape as I was. I was too scared or timid to even think of asking a girl to dance. All of a sudden a girl my age tapped me on my shoulder and to my embarrassment asked if I might dance with her. The guys were all smirking around me and knowing I would never hear the end of it from them if I said no, I told her OK. But I said I couldn’t dance a polka or waltz but if the band played a jitterbug piece, I might give it a try.
Now I never danced a jitterbug before but I sure watched enough of it being done in my backyard. My backyard being across the road from my house which was Arthur Dobbin’s Place. Around June 19 he always had a large celebration at his beer joint. The place sported a large concrete dance floor. This dance floor was not covered so we could view it and the dancers from across the road. We would lay all night long on our stomachs at the cattle guard and watch those lively boys and girls do that jitterbug as only they could do.
So when the band at the Plum dance hall finally played a peppy jitterbug number, here came that girl again so I had no choice but to accept. Now the dictionary defines jitterbug as “a two-step dance in which couples swing, balance, and twirl vigorously in standardized patterns.” Now I tried doing all of the above but I don’t think I was too standardized in any of them. I just mimicked the moves I remembered seeing at Dobbins Place and I guess it all worked out OK cause that girl seemed to be satisfied as I led her back to her seat. That was my first ever dance with an honest-togoodness real live girl – after which there were many more to follow in the future.