High School Dances

Your memories from high school most likely involve the activities you participated in rather than the classrooms. The girls that were in the Houstonettes will have many memories of football games where they performed during half-time and the same is true for those in the Band. Those on sports teams will have memories of those games, especially those where the team did well. Those involved with the NDCC, AG, Auto-shop, etc. will also remember those days. For me, my strongest memories were the school dances.

I remember the Sock Hop dances that were held in the lunchroom with music playing, and teachers standing around pretending to care about what the students were doing while talking to each other. I remember the feeling of whether should I ask a particular girl to dance or maybe play it safer and ask a girl that had already danced with me. It is funny how much different a girl looks at night on a dance floor as compared to in a classroom. That feeling of holding her hand with one hand touching her waist with the other hand and being close enough to smell the perfume she is wearing. The school just seemed so much different during those times.

The formal dances like the Stardust Ball that was sponsored by the Houstonettes, were something I looked forward to and hoped to go to each year. The girls were always so pretty with their gowns, their hair so well done, and looking like a Princess, every one of them. The excitement of picking out a tux to wear for the dance that year and hoping you ordered the right corsage to go with her dress. I always cheated and got the orchid corsage, hoping the color would be OK. The excitement of that moment when I pinned the corsage on her dress. Then the picture taking for the Mom, I wish I had copies of some of them. The drive to La Porte with your date and then dance to music from a real band. All dressed up like a Prince and Princess just felt special, like there are just the two of you there. For a kid from the north side, it was a different world for the night.

The Senior Prom was just the most exciting night. All of the same as the Stardust Ball except it was for graduation from high school. We were 18 or would be soon and it was our last dance together as students. We might not see most of them again after our last day of school. I had gone to another prom the year before as a date, but it was different from my senior prom. Back then, no one had a limousine to take you out to eat and then to the dance. However, word would be shared as to where most of your friends were going to eat before going to the dance later. Walking into the restaurant and seeing many tables filled with your friends all dressed up, with big smiles on their faces, and looking like they were somebody to be noticed – I remember that sight. On the dance floor, it was a night like none before.

I went to another senior prom after that with someone who graduated in a later year and it was a lot of fun as well, but different. All of the same things with the dress, flowers, meal, and dancing that I loved and being with someone special, but different because I was not a student anymore. Kids today, may have a hard time understanding why it was so special. They have had everything they could want and really don’t understand what it was like to be from a blue-collar working-class community with little more than what was needed. To be able to have a special night where you felt like you were in a pretend world.

Floyd Cramer – Tennessee Waltz