Argh, is there anyone who can’t remember the emotional roller coaster ride of junior high caused by boys??  Does he notice me?  Does he like me?  Will he ask me to the dance?  Ah, the intensity and ache of it all.  

In this essay our member, Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, takes us back to those days when we were in rapture one moment, and then plumbing the lowest depths of despair with one careless word from the object of our infatuation.

Waiting for the boy to ask you to dance. Your feelings are controlled and determined by junior high school aged boys. The best jitter bugger never asks you. Your high school years will bring you popularity in dating older boys. But this is middle school years in the fifties and your pride is in the hands of boys who do the asking.

The most popular boy in school lives across the street. He is a basketball star although he has not yet grown into a man’s height. He is the best dancer in your neighborhood group of friends. He always dances with the girls who will also kiss him. He knows how good-looking he is even at twelve. There is a line of females competing to dance with him, to be his girlfriend for a night, a week, a month. He is a sassy charmer. He knows he is number one.

You are not one of your girlfriends who want him but you like to watch the revolving door of his momentary picks. What you do love is to watch him dance. He is a great dancer who has impeccable rhythm and knows all the latest steps. He is dazzling on the dance floor even in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

One day you are twelve and the next you are sixty-three.  The decades have brought you the marriage of your dreams, three incredible careers and a life in which you have been you. One of your greatest passions is dancing.
 
Your childhood girlfriend is coming into town to attend the 50th anniversary of your high school. She talks you into going. You are not sure why she has to talk you into attending because you loved high school. You were President of your Junior Class and spent four years being part of many activities.  Although your junior high school classmates were there with you, interacting with new people was what you loved about high school.
 
You are not sure that this type of party, which is open to graduating classes spanning fifty years, would offer quality time to reminisce and visit. You receive some phone calls from old friends who have come to town. You decide to go.

It is a small group of your friends who attend, maybe fifteen or so. Most of these classmates were with you in junior high as well as high school. You are thrilled to see them. One man walks up to you and says your name. You struggle to recognize his face. He says his name and smiles. It is the star dancer of your adolescence, your former neighbor, the jock your pre-teen girlfriends lusted after.

You catch up on the moments that have brought you through six decades. As others arrive, you greet them and are greeted warmly. Everyone looks well. Sixty-three never looked better. These are the people of your youth. Their place in your life is a special one. The memories you share together are your  beginning.

The band is getting ready to play the oldies of the 50’s and 60’s. As the music begins, you walk toward the dance floor and turn. He catches your eye as you extend your hand toward him motioning for him to join you on the dance floor. The best jitter bugger in sixth grade takes your hand and you engage together in a wild ride singing the words to every song to which you are dancing. He is still a great dancer.
 
Next you motion to another childhood male friend and then another. Each man joins you on the dance floor, one at a time. As boys, you had never danced with any of them. Now you are enjoying their individual style and movements. On that dance floor they are meeting you for the first time. And you asked them. You chose and picked the males with whom you wanted to dance that night.
 
One of your sisters was also there. When you talk to her at the end of the night, she tells you how wonderful you danced and how exciting it was that all the boys/men wanted to dance with you.
 
You smile to yourself.  You will always love the girl who was twelve but a woman of sixty-three never felt better.

Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, Founding General Manager of WYCC-TV/PBS and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Wright College in Chicago, is an author, public speaker and award-winning educator and broadcaster
. 
She has published her nonfiction stories and essays in anthologies, magazines, newspapers and online magazines.
Her story THE REVOLVING DOOR is  published in Chicken Soup for the Chocolate Lover's Soul.   Her story GRANDMA LEBEDOW is published in the anthology The Wisdom of Old Souls.  In the anthology Forever Friends her published stories include THE RED PEN, THE ELEVATOR, MR X AND MR.Y, and LIFE 101.

Elynne is married to her best friend Richard Noel Aleskow.
 

LIST OF COMMENTS