Greetings Blogworld… from the great and beautiful city of Atlanta.
I just had the most surreal moment. I was standing in a coffee shop a few minutes ago (no big surprise) when I heard the song “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart” by Shenandoah and Alison Krauss. Have you heard it? I kid you not, I was teleported back to my 8th grade dance. I had forgotten how awkward yet glorious that historical moment was. Awkward because I was still sporting my braces but glorious because a person’s first big school dance is a rite of passage. Good or bad, it remains a milestone. I mean, I spent a month in a tanning salon preparing for that dance! I still remember exactly what formal dress I was wearing and even what my corsage smelled like. My date and I were attempting to two-step to this very passionate country tune. We were very much wrapped up into the song, so much so that I think I may have even put my head on his shoulder. Who doesn’t get caught up in the moment under a disco ball? You laugh…but this was a big move for an innocent thirteen-year-old girl with very well known parents. In between our very emotional embraces I would glance to make sure my homeroom teacher wasn’t looking because I knew darn well she was going to tell my Mom. Total downside of having your homeroom teacher doing your mother’s Bible studies. Okay, I digress, but today as I listened to the lyrics now from the perspective of an adult, I about died. Please take a minute to read the first two verses of this song:
Thousand miles
Of lonesome highway
Drinking gallons of coffee in a little cafe
Brought me here, and it’s so good to find there’s someone who’s got
The same story as mine
Just look at us, we’re a couple hard cases
So how’d we end up where we are?
Somewhere in the vicinity of the heart
I feel somethin hittin me awful hard
I don’t know where it’s gonna lead
I just know it starts
Somewhere in the vicinity of the heart
When I heard these lyrics again today I nearly went into hysterics. To think that a couple of suburban kids who had never so much as kissed were honestly identifying with these lines is completely absurd. But there we were. We were identifying, alright. Just a couple of hard cases looking for someone else with a similar tumultuous relational past.
Okay, so it’s your turn- I want to know what takes you back to the past? What was your best or funniest memory at a middle school or high school dance? To what songs did you dance?
Melissa, I told my husband this story over dinner from when I heard it earlier…too funny! Oh my goodness isn’t it crazy how music or a certain scent just make the memories come flooding back!
Did anyone say 4PM “Sukiyaki”??? Please tell me someone remembers this song? Or Celine Dion “Power of Love”. I think those were from 7TH grade for me oh man they take me back! There are just SO many!
And what about scents…Calvin Klien anyone! This is my favorite post yet! Goodnight! LOL
I remember my first middle school dance. It wasn’t a formal dance or anything, just something after school. Well my mom made me wear a skirt… a pink denim skirt with big pleats. It was awful. No one else wore a skirt and I was so embarrassed. To make matters worse, when the Christmas dance came around there was a boy who really liked me but I didn’t really like him, who asked me to the dance. His parents were friends of my parents and he asked my mom to take me, so I went. It was sweet in hindsight, but my mom, of course, made me wear a dress. It was a tank dress that she had made – red, with little penguins sledding through Christmas trees. My date, of course, wore sweatpants and a t-shirt. I don’t think we danced one dance together!
Oh man…I was 14, it wasn’t a dance, but it was the END of the world because I was leaving my summer boyfriend in Colorado to head back to Germany where my parents were missionaries. Our song: Right Here Waiting For You by Richard Marx… CAN NOT listen to the song without laughing now.
Oceans apart day after day
And I slowly go insane (Because 14 year olds are known for their slow descent into hormonial insanity???)
I hear your voice on the line (not really because my mom and dad won’t pay for me to make the long distant phone call)
But it doesn’t stop the pain
If I see you next to never (which is a huge probability since I’m OCEANS APART)
How can we say forever (Well we can’t because I’m ONLY 14)
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you (HA)
Whatever it takes
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you
I took for granted, all the times (that whole 2 months)
That I though would last somehow
I hear the laughter, I taste the tears
But I can’t get near you now
Oh, can’t you see it baby
You’ve got me goin’ CrAzY
It only lasted till he wrote me a letter telling me would wait for me until I could come home for college…I had a cold, didn’t feel good and the neediness got me…so I broke up with him.
What I am about to write is true. If only I could change it to protect the innocent. There is not one detail yet that doesn’t cause me to wince with embarrassment. But, dear Melissa, we can’t back away from the truth of the 70s….
My hair was parted in the middle, and it was neither silky nor as long as Marcia Brady’s. I wore a salt and pepper flecked blue ribbed bodysuit and elephant-bell bottom turquoise corduroy pants with four silver studs on the hip-hugger waist. The bodysuit had two snaps at the bottom, and yes, before Grand Funk Railroad finished “The Locomotion,” they had snapped HARD and flung themselves up out of my pants. I was painfully self-conscious as it was, and moreso because I had asked Heart-throb Alan the Jock to this Sadie Hawkins, and I knew his MOTHER had made him go with me. I was dreaming of wearing his Speidel ID bracelet and living happily ever after, and he was dreaming of dating the head cheerleader and playing pro baseball (both of which he ended up doing.) By the end of the excruciating evening, all of which I am sure was reported to my dad, who was a school principal at another school – I feel your pain, Melissa – I could barely keep from sobbing as Nilsson Schmilsson wailed, “I can’t liiiiiiiive if living is without youuuuu, I can’t live, I can’t give anymooooorrree, ohhh, oohhh” – oh, ask your mom about that song. It was a tragic end to a tragic, awkward evening. Would anyone even take a million dollars to relive junior high?
Inga….Awwwwww. That’s so sweet.
My hubs sang Lionel Richie’s “Truly” to me at our wedding. Sniff. Here let me get you a tissue too.
Melana
This takes me back to the beginning of the need for Breaking Free. He was so cute and I spent far too much time daydreaming about him…and that song, which one was it??? Open Arms by Journey? Crazy on You by Heart? or something by Styxx?
I have laughed so hard reading these comments.
Teri-Facedown… your post since me over the edge into tears with “Nobody puts baby in a corner” and walking off carrying a watermelon!
I never went to any dances but do have memories of roller skating to Madonna at the local skating rink.
Vogue!
I spent my highschool years in Minot North Dakota and the ONLY thing there was to do was to go rollerskating. Plus that was where all the G.I’s from the airforce base hung out :)In Fact that is where i meet my husband. I asked him to skate with me on a ladies choice couples skate. He asked me out on a date for the next night which happened to be my 18th birthday, we were engaged 3 months later and this coming april we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. I think Airsupply, All out of Love , and He’s so shy are probably the ones that reminds me the most of that time. Although whenever i hear “Brick House” i want to go dust off my rollerskates and hit the floor!
7th grade end of the year road rally…we had a dance to end it all and my crush finally asked me to dance. We danced to “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles. Every single time I hear that song, I think of Rick!
It was my 8th grade dance, My mother had made my dress, and we had been working on it for 2 months. It was like a vampire dress, black lace on top of a deep simmery purple material and the bottom was a green velvet the sleeves also came to a point. I am just one of those girls that hated getting dressed up, so mostly uncomfortable. But I enjoyed the effort of my mom to make the dress. Sad to think of it now that I enjoyed the dress more than the date….lol
Born in early 1970s. Remember middle school “skating parties”, more than dances during that time. Fun 80s music. The DJ would announce the “slow skate” and boys and girls would try to find someone to skate with side by side for that one “special” song. Fun times!
Lol, I’m in my late teens and now I’m a little nervous about what I will look back at ten or twenty years from now and laugh my head off about. I guess I’ll just enjoy my “coolness” while it remains cool :-).I don’t have big hair, so I’m safe there at least. 🙂
Well, definitely showing my age here but our prom theme song was The Theme from The Goodbye Girl. My kids say I look like I’m getting married in my prom picture. Off white, long sleeved, high necked, gunny sax dress. I loved it though. Happy Weekend to all…Joyce
In seventh grade, I found out my crush was going to be at the dance and that he “might” be interested in me. I had also heard that washing your hair in raw egg made it shiny. So I did. In warm water. Oh, the smell! I went to the dance anyway and sure enough, he asked me to dance! But nothing ever came of it, I wonder why…
It was my first jr high dance, nothing formal, and they couldn’t get the sound system working. They played Van Halen’s Dancing in the Streets over and over. Finally all systems were ago. Dennis Miller asked me to dance during the first slow song which I don’t remember. I about panicked. Now my husband hunts on Dennis’ parents land. Ha!
My whole adolescence was wrapped up in my youth group at church. Anytime I hear any song from Amy Grant’s Age to Age, Straight Ahead or Unguarded. I feel like I’m right back in the early ’80s and I feel just as insecure and awkward as I did then. In addition, any song from Chicago or Journey can do the same. I’m so glad those days are over, but I’m reliving them with my kids.
Blessings to all,
Stephanie
I have been sitting at work crackin up – it’s good to know that I am not neurotic and that people will relate to me when I spill this – almost 10 years ago I fell in love for the first time (I was 16) and the smell of Curve and the song “Breathe” by Faith Hill never fails to take me back to that precious, awkward, heartbreaking time period. By the way, he broke up with me right before Junior Prom. It’s taken me years and therapy to get over THAT one (kidding). 🙂
Richard Palmer’s, Addicted to Love.
Girlfriend, let me tell ya, was I ever…in all, ALL the wrong places, addicted to love. Makes me cringe thinking about all the dumb, dumb, DOUBLE DUMB, things I did. I can’t help but think that song is so true…many of us are addicted to love, perhaps every one of us. While this post is true, I’m laughing because today I’m addicted to the love of Jesus, BABY!
I checked the blog last night after Bible study. And couldn’t think of any particular song, perhaps because it is so long ago. But I do know that hearing a song can take me right back to the moment. And so do other things–last week I licked my finger after making my daughter’s birthday cake–family recipe. And I closed my eyes and I was about ten years old sitting in my favorite spot at the dining room table in my childhood home with birthday cake being served on china. Now to admit that this memory is about 47 years old. But how blessed I am that I was able to call my parents and share the memory.
Freshman year of highschool my BFF and I had crushes on 2 “older” sophomores guys. During lunch our school had a jukbox on the stage and for .50 you could play 3 songs. We Always chose “Babe” by Styx. To this day I laugh everytime I hear it and can “see” our big hair and goofy smiles.
Unfortunately I don’t remember many good times from middle school. I’m sure there were some, but I felt like a total misfit. It’s where I first heard someone tell my best friend I was homely. So I love to read of your best/funniest moments. Life is good…I loved the disco era – call me dumb. But my best moment was dancing with my then boyfriend/now husband to many of the disco song and slow dancing to Cris Cross’ Sailing.
I remember something about a breakup and Phil Collin’s “Separate Lives”. That’s all I can stand to type as I will go hide my face in a pillow now.
This is a fun post! It’s amazing how much we put out of our minds until one little thing jogs that memory and boom-flashes of immature, insecure, what were you thinking child! comes back to me.
So, Phil Collins Groovy Kind of Love and Tiffany’s I think we’re alone now take me back. So serious back then. I think I need these for the ipod now that I can laugh about it all. Ooh, one more thing. Let us girls (you know how old you are) hear the Yo! VIP let’s kick it-why don’t our men understand this?????
It was “Moon River” for me. My “boyfriend” (what do you know about boys at that age?)and I were driven by his parents to a city about 30 miles away to a birthday party for a friend who had moved away. That would be 7th grade. My mother made my dark pink knee length chiffon party dress. We thought we had arrived! We danced the night away until about 9:30. Those were the days. Dee
Okay, I read this last night and started to comment, but it’s taken a good 12 hours to swallow my pride and tell this story. At my ninth grade athletic banquet dance, we were all having such a good time. I was looking good, I tell you. I know it because I was wearing my older sister’s outfit, and you always look better in your older sister’s clothes right? Well, the dance part was casual so I had on some classic early 90’s shorts that were a pretty green with cream-colored polka dots and a perfectly matching scrunchie for my hair. There was DJ there, and at the height of technological advance, he even had a screen on which he could show videos and even us! Well, at one point, hot from dancing, I flipped my head over to make better use of my perfect scrunchie and pull my hair back into a ponytail and my friends grabbed me and turned me around to look at the screen…There, big as anything (and much larger than actual size) was my polka-dotted rear end! It stayed on the screen forEVER! In fact, he broke it into six boxes so everyone could see it numerous times at once. Even then, that DJ couldn’t let it go…instead of just taking it off the screen, he let it fade smaller and smaller over the course of what seemed like hours. I was humiliated at first, but eventually, just laughed with everyone else…but I NEVER forgot that, and I don’t think I borrowed my sister’s clothes again either.
What a great idea for a blog. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s comments so much.
For me the memory is of my 7th Grade Fall Football Dance. It was my very first dance ever. I couldn’t believe it when my crush asked me to dance. I honestly don’t even remember the song that was playing because I was so nervous and excited all at the same time. That song seemed to last forever though. 🙂
Crimson and Clover, I am woman hear me roar, I shot the sherrif, ummm, hmm, I am only 37 but my parents ruled the 8 track!
“Eternal Flame” by The Bangels transports me back in time to a crazy summer during junior high. I had a crush on a boy in high school who would talk to me at the public swimming pool [I think I went to the pool nearly every day that summer just to see him]. He eventually ended up with a girl his own age and I was heartbroken. I don’t think he knew it, but in my eyes “Eternal Flame” was our song. After he got his girlfriend I’d cry whenever I heard this song. Eventually I got over him, obviously I was a novelty and he probably talked to me just to be nice.
My mother would GASP if she knew I was admitting this…
I was ROLLER SKATING to The Gap Band… “You Dropped A Bomb on Me”.
(NOTE: I was very, very young…)
I fell during that song and broke my arm.
How about Prince?? Or, LL Cool J? LOL! Or, Janet Jackson? (My mother would be holding her chest at this point…)
Then, there was that time of my life when “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn..” brings the late 80’s back to me. (She is out cold now…)
Senior prom… I had the big bangs (and I am not talking evolution). I wore a pink prom dress with LARGE bangs as my ‘crown’. Big hair. BIG. Does anyone remember VAVOOM hairspray? I am from Indiana. I have always said I was dropped off too early by the stork. (I should have been from Texas because I love big hair.) I am certain Texas beauticians bought stock Vavoom hairspray.
I am certain we danced to Paula Abdul and Poison and Boys II Men…
WOW! Thanks for the blast from the past!
Oh, we’re gonna date ourselves for sure with this one….
Dori! 6th blog down….I SOOO relate to those songs you picked! “Hello” (the Lionel Richie song) brought back such a funny memory for me. Just recently my teenagers saw the video for this song (remember the blind girl?) and I was reminiscing about this song…my son said “Mom, have you ever noticed that this video is a little creepy? I mean, the guy is stalking a blind girl!”
Never thought of it that way…..
Anyway, high school: sophomore year. The old Chicago song, “You’re the Inspiration”…the line at the end of the song, “when you love somebody till the end of time” still just cracks me up. What did I know about loving someone til the end of time at the ripe old age of 15? Alas, the boy in question at the time and I parted ways a few weeks later.
So much for “till the end of time.”
“hard to say I’m sorry” was the first rock/pop song I ever heard and the very next song I heard was Amy Grant’s “sing your praise”
that was in 10th grade and i remember being so annoyed at the rest of the kids at the party ’cause I wanted to go back and listen to the song again and they wanted to move on to another one. Silly people, didn’t they know my life had just been changed? up till then all I had ever heard was hymns and classical music on my dad’s LPs.
I went to a wonderful Christian school where the entire high school consisted of 16 people (I know, right?!). And being on the conservative side of things we had Proms- but with no dancing. So needless to say we spent the evening on a beautiful river boat, in gorgeous gowns, eating delicious food bobbing our heads to a Veggie Tales soundtrack…ha!
It was lame at the time but now a mom of two little boys I know every word to great tunes like- Everyones Got A Water Buffalo, and Oh Where Is My Hairbrush?
Lauren
Two songs, Faithfully by Journey in junior high.
Then I remember the boys trying to dance to “Footloose.” It was not pretty.
I didn’t really want to go to the prom- not because of the dress and dancing and all, but because I felt that if I -who are we kidding? my parents- were going to spend money on a dress then I ought to be taken somewhere out of central no-where and have the dance somewhere other than the smelly gym. Alas, I went against my own instincts with a friend. Except he thought he wanted to be more than a friend at then end of the evening and tried to kiss me so I turned and let him have a mouthful of big hair held together with Rave more than likely (Aqua Net was so jr. high). So, When I See You Smile takes me back- it was the theme that year.
Mine is “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith from the movie Armageddon. In eighth grade, I was a j.v. cheerleader and there was a certain 9th grade football player that I was always a little interested in. We never “went out,” but we had three different dances that year, and we always found each other across the dance floor when that song began to play!
I have it!!
Close your eyes…
It’s the mid 80’s.
Tom Cruise is wearing a bomber jacket…
Can you still hear..
“Great Balls of Fire”?
“Heaven In Your Eyes”? (Wasn’t that Loverboy that sang that???)
And who could forget, “Take My Breath Away”??? What a movie.
My boyfriend at the time had a leather jacket and he wore Lagerfeld cologne. In my mind, I had my own fighter pilot… LOL.
Thank you, Lord, for YEARS of grace and mercy and forgiveness.
HA HA! SO funny!! Okay, well, when I was in eighth grade a kid from our church had a serious crush on me, but I was not even remotely attracted to him. We were both in the school play at at the cast party after the final performance, he asked me to dance. I didn’t know how to say no – and didn’t feel like that would be very nice – so, I agreed. However, I couldn’t even look at him, and I would barely touch him, so, with my fingertips barely brushing his shoulders, my arms outstretched completely, I swayed to one song with him, while talking to my friend, who was dancing next to me. Wow. It still makes me feel uncomfortable to think about it!
Prince (yes, the artist formerly known as Prince) ~~ In high school I rode to school with my across-the-street neighbor, Jack. He was such a blast and had a fun VW bug. Every day, morning and afternoon, we rocked out LOUD to the cassette tape “1999.” I always smile and think of Jack when I hear Prince.
Jill
Huffman High School
Class of ’86
Okay, these are hilarious… I’m getting a HUGE laugh from reading these posts because all these songs bring back some kind of memory… I remember my Jr. Prom theme was, “Hold onto the Night.” Remember that one, by Richard Marx? I remember crying to that one when my boyfriend and I had problems…
Also loved, “If You Leave”. I think it was by OMD, from the movie “Pretty in Pink.” That movies does it to me, too. It’s so hilarious how much I loved that movie and I thought Andi and Blaine and Ducky were all so great. If I watch it now I realize how teeny-bopper it was, but those were the days!!! 🙂
This has been so funny!!!
The one thing I have to say is my mom had to take me out to buy 45’s for my own dance party in 8th grade – but “Signs, sign’s everywhere are signs” is a huge memory jogger for my high school “rebel”-“was” years…..we would all have to sing it with the hard core look on our faces…..still have to get that “look” when ever I hear it now….too funny!
His Peace-
Melissa, I have laughed so hard reading all this posts!! This is so fun! My memory is of being in college, and going to my boyfriend’s first high school reunion in the early 70’s – out of town. I had just bought a new pair of slacks and had forgotten my shoes. His mother had a pair that somewhat fit my feet so she insisted that I borrow them. They did look great – but slide off my feet when I tried to walk – much less dance!!! I was not much of a “fast” dancer so I decided to jsut go for the slow ones and not make a fool of myself. Well, one of his good friends came up and asked me to dance – you guessed it, a fast one. I looked at everyone around me and tried to imitate what they were doing, slipped off the back of my shoes, and stumbled around so much that I just had to shrug my shoulders and get off the floor. I didn’t dance anymore that entire night! Don’t even remember any of the great music the band was playing because I was so humilated. Now, whenever I try on shoes with sling backs – I am transported back to that dance – and I don’t buy them!!!
Thanks for the laughs,
BEBE
Watching Little Mermaid. There was a guy in high school named Erik, and we all wanted to be “part of his world.” I think we were in 6th or 7th grade when the movie first came out in theaters. It came out again when we were in college….a few high school friends were in town from college for Thanksgiving, and (since there’s nothing else to do in our small town) we went to see the movie, just for kicks. We then went to waffle house…and what do you know–a big, college-aged “Prince Erik” (same guy) walked right into the Waffle House after the show and sat down right beside us. We were all completely over the idea of being “part of his world by then,” but we still snickered a good bit during dinner.(He was home from his senior year of college, too, and was about to get married.) I’ll leave this comment anonymous since he’s now a well-respected Baptist youth pastor in the Atlanta area! 🙂 But, the movie still reminds me of the crush we ALL had on him in high school.
The fragrance–Tabu perfume. People must have smelled me before they saw me! Strong stuff. Takes me back where I don’t want to remember–high school!
The story–a “dance” of sorts.
Guy #1 (an on again off again ex boyfriend) decided to play a practical joke on me involving a firecracker-type thing-y installed under the hood of my car that would go off when I started the car—what a way to win the ladies, huh. What he didn’t know was that I had made plans to go out for a coke with Guy #2 after work. I went out to the car, started it and you can imagine–smoke, guys laughing like they were funny, me…wondering what to do next. Guy #2 pulls up. Can you say aaaaawwwwkward? I got in the car with the second guy and we left. It was hard to carry on a sensible conversation. After getting the coke, we went to a church parking lot and tried to talk. I was distracted, to say the least. He ended up singing to me—acapella no less!!– James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend”. At the time, I didn’t realize how gutsy–and sweet, that was. But at the time I was thinking, “Is this weird?” and “What is ____ doing to my car now?!” lol
This story reminds me to pray for those two wherever they are…
Freebird and Endless Love always take me back to my first dates with my husband. After 23 years I still love him and those songs!
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Fellin’ by the Righteous Brothers when it was re-released for the soundtrack Ghost in 1990.
I remember this boy that got down on his knees and sang the part,
“Baby baby I get down on my knees for you
If you would only love me like you used to do
We had a love
A love a love you don’t find every day
So don’t…don’t…don’t let it slip away “
Like we had any clue what love was in middle school let alone a love that you don’t find everyday. LOL! But man did I just gush with emotions when he got down on his knees. So Corny! What a good laugh lookin’ back. Thanks for the post Lis.
hahahahah i skated to “you dropped a bomb on me”, too!! WOW! that just brought back so many memories 🙂 Good times.
this is great! thanks Melissa!
“As I walk this land with broken dreams
I have visions of many things
Love’s happiness is just an illusion
Filled with sadness and confusion,”
ALL TOGETHER NOW —
“What becomes of the broken hearted
Who had love that’s now departed?
I know I’ve got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Ma-yyy-bb-eee”
Have Mercy – the memories that song brings back of a young girl, more melancholy that she should have been over a little boy. But, an important time on our road to women of today. Agree?
Thanks for stirring up the memories. Love all the posts.
Love and Blessings, Debbie in Tennessee
My very first dance was in 7th grade. The song was “Dream Weaver”. My date was very sweet. He gave me a corsage. It was not a formal dance…so I wore a jean skirt (my very first one!! A wrap-around skirt). We both had braces and were very nervous. Thanks for bringing the memory to mind. It’s always good to remember what I felt like when I was younger. This helps me better relate to my children, although the ones who still have this to navigate are boys, and I believe their perspective is quite a bit different.
Never had a school dance (went to Christian schools from kindergarten until my sophomore year of college and dances were just not the thing).
But, I can place just about every year in the 1980s (save for 1980 and 1981) by a song. I can see myself in Jr. High, High School and College doing one thing or another when I hear music from the 80s.
There’s a lot of good music from all the decades behind us but for me 80s music is filled with tons and tons of memories. My husband is a few years older than me so he can remember some music from the 1970s and place himself somewhere but for the most part we’re raised in the 80s kids. It’s kind of fun hearing the music and learning a little bit about our childhoods from each other through the music.
The first boy/girl party I ever attended at a friends house was a highly anticipated event. I planned for weeks (it seems) what I would wear and even daydreamed that maybe a certain boy would kiss me (first kiss I was thirteen). Well we played spin the bottle (I know) and I got so scared I went to the bathroom and hid out for most of the rest of the party. I wish I could say the rest of my teen years were as inno cent. Most of the songs I hear that remind me of that time do not have a happy or funny memory attached. By the way, your mom’s teaching on modesty in the Esther Study was fabulous, our ladies who are typically almost impossible to move, were vocal in their response!!!!!! It is about time someone taught that subject with passion and force and not embarred apologies. When my girls were teenagers I actually argued with adults that encouraged her to be immodest (she was very pretty). You are all such a blessing and may God continue to give you His favour!!! Shalom