25 or 6 to 4

Waiting for the break of day
Searching for something to say
-Chicago

This weekend I went to the 80th birthday party for my step-mom. One of the guests there was the mother of someone I went to a high school dance with. Not sure why she was one of the guests, but it was nice to see her again. She remembered me right away and said she still had the picture taken at the dance of me and her son. That was one of the more fun high school dances I went to. Everyone wondered why I (a senior) went with John (a sophomore) but we were good friends from band and just went as friends. No pressure, no drama, we just went to have fun. And we did. More dances should be like that.

My high school had two guy-ask-girl dances which were Homecoming and Prom, and two girl-ask-guy dances which were Sadie Hawkins and Semi (semi-formal). I went to most of the Sadie Hawkins dances and they were okay but kind of hokey. People dressed up as farmers and hill-billies. One year, getting ready, I slipped in the shower and split my head open. I had to get stitches and went to the dance with a large gauze bandage on my head. Everyone thought it was part of my costume and were surprised to see me still with the bandage the next Monday. For this dance, people made "corsages" out of fruits, vegetables, pine cones, and other such things. You had to hang onto your date all night or one of you got put in "jail" and you had to pay a kiss to get them out. Goofy stuff like that.

I watched the drama most of my friends went through with the other dances...asking people they desperately wanted to go with, then dating a week or two, deciding they hated the person and being annoyed they were stuck with someone they didn't like or else a ticket they paid for and no date. I didn't have the patience for that. I did go to my senior prom with a guy I dated a few months and it was fun. I had a good group of friends and we all sort of hung out together, but some of my closest friends were going through break-ups with their boyfriends as we neared the end of our senior year. Lots of drama and I was never much impressed with that. (Hmmmm, maybe that's where my Baby Girls get that attitude from. )

So when I look back at my high school dances, I really do look at the one I went to with John as one of the most fun. He wore a camel-colored corduroy suit (this was the 70s) and I wore a long blue dress. We laughed and talked and goofed off and just had fun....like we did in band all the time. I played alto sax; John played trumpet. We did stuff in pep band together and hung out together after the games. He was funny and nice. I hope life's been good to him. So why this song for this blog? Cuz in pep band, 25 or 6 to 4 was one of our favorite songs to play. The band played it with gusto and almost everyone knew it from memory. And on those rare occasions when I hear it these days, it makes me think of all those nights on the football field or in the gym playing for basketball games, sitting with the band in the bleachers, and all the fun we had together.