Memory Well: First Dance

Lately, they've been playing a commercial with Beth by Kiss as the background (it's actually a really cute commercial, with a dad taking his boys out for a guys' day, ending up with him texting his wife with "Beth, what can I do" and her texting back "Pick up milk".  Really smart commercial, really well done, even if it is for Volkswagen.)  Anyway... brings back memories.

The first school dance I ever went to was at Franklin Jr High in Pocatello, Idaho.  I was in 7th grade, new in town (as always), but I had an "in" - I played trombone, so I was in the band.  It gave me a group of people I belonged to.  We had a sock hop - literally a sock hop, it was held in the gym and you had to take off your shoes when you entered the room to avoid tearing up the new basketball court, and the band all decided to attend en mass.  

I spent most of the evening dancing with a mass of girls, the way that you do when you're young and herded together, but finally the last song of the night came on.  Slow song, so group dancing is not possible, but then Marc sidled up to the group.  Marc played bari sax, and had the most fascinating eyes - green eyes except for one quarter of his right eye that was orange.  Anyway, he asked me to dance - at least, I think that's what he said.  He was mumbling so low I couldn't really hear him, but he held out a hand and pulled me onto the floor, so I assume that's what he said.

Now, just as an aside - I was always the tallest person in my class, up until 8th or 9th grade.  I spent my youth in the back row of class photographs.  At this point, I'd hit 5'7", and frankly, I always took it as an insult that I stopped growing and suddenly everyone shot up past me.  Marc, on the other hand, was maybe 4'9" on a good day at that point.  Not optimal for a slow dance, but hey...  we made it work.  Revolving around the dance floor, his arms reaching up to my shoulders, me looking over his head, and "Beth" playing over the creaky loudspeakers.  My first slowdance... I'll always appreciate Kiss for that, if nothing else.