Maybe it’s Winter; the cold calling for a mind thaw. I’ve been in the nostalgia zone. Deep into that zone for a few weeks. Actually that’s good because with all these songs flooding into my consciousness, along comes the synesthesia–the mind movie I talk about on my webpage; I get back into writing.

Each time I would search and find the song that poked its way up through my thoughts, it would lead to another.
And another. Many of these were playing while I was in my early teens. There’s was nothing, nothing like the feeling of cheek-burning excitement at a Saturday night dance (usually held at a Temple.)

By the time I was fourteen I was over the moon in love with Larry Liebowitz, a seventeen year old who was a sax ( I said SAX) player at the High School of Performing Arts. We dated for a few years. I thought he was the most magnificent of male specimens. When he took me home we’d take a side trip into the staircase next to my apartment and have a heated make-out session.

We spent a lot of time at a bowling alley/pool hall in lower Manhattan. The first time we went I was terrified I’d find a smokey, sleazy joint of a place. It was nothing like that. Larry smoked Luckys and he was my Lucky Strike.
In the early 60s kids danced. I mean DANCED. Boys knew that the close proximity afforded by a foxtrot could lead to other things.

Men: dancing is the best foreplay in the world (but at that time I didn’t know it.) I just knew that when I was dancing with Larry sailor style I was in another place. You can’t get much physically closer. His arms around my waist, my arms around his neck. It was a moving make-out session.

As a guy friend once related: “We Catholics went to dances run by the nuns. They’d make the rounds with a piece of paper. The nuns would try to pass it between you and your partner and If it didn’t fit they’d push you apart and say ‘make room for the Holy Ghost.’ ” When Larry and I danced the Holy Ghost was locked out.

I often wonder what happened to that handsome young man whom I loved in the early 1960s. I think he was going to enlist in the Army. He would have gone to Viet Nam. I never heard from him again.

If you close your eyes and listen, you’ll enter my mind. It was the time of an awakening to all possibilities. Love is the best possibility of all.

This I Swear is True.
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reply greenwytch wrote on Jan 21, ’11 *sigh*. ; D

reply sweetpotatoqueen wrote on Jan 21, ’11 sanssouciblogs said “We Catholics went to dances run by the nuns. They’d make the rounds with a piece of paper. The nuns would try to pass it between you and your partner and If it didn’t fit they’d push you apart and say ‘make room for the Holy Ghost.’ ” When Larry and I danced the Holy Ghost was locked out. Now you have lead me down the road of old memories…thank you!As I listen to your wonderful playlist let me share:In the 70s we had high school functions call “Happenings”. (The 70s had a cool alternative name for about everything and these were dances where we could spend the night and enjoy movies & friendship and other teenage interests) Parent were asked to chaperon these overnight COED events. Needless to day there was more than enough raging hormones to make this event quite a much anticipated time for teenage couples. My very first boyfriend,Randy H. , and I loved these events and spent the majority of time in a dark corner totally enthralled with making out. It was during one of these make-out sessions that one of the chaperons of the evening interrupted our activities…the chaperon of the evening just happened to be my Dad! I was mortified that my Dad made such an unneccessay scene about perfectly normal teenage interests. Needless to say,after that incident my Dad had us on his radar and any attempts at close dancing,kissing or other physical activities were stopped dead in their tracks. Randy H. and I still send each Christmas cards and joke about these old memories of teenage crushes. Good times! Thanks for nudging this trip down memory lane.

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Jan 21, ’11, edited on Jan 21, ’11 Fabulous anecdote, sweetie! In retrospect, compared to what has evolved with kids, we were very innocent.

reply knightstar wrote on Jan 22, ’11 Thanks, Sue. Now I’m in the nostalgia zone, too, it seems.~M

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Jan 22, ’11 Have a GREAT Song Saturday, all!

reply opossumd wrote on Jan 22, ’11 Great memories. Although a distant world, also in mine dancing was considered a rite of transition from childhood to teens . For us there were Sunday matinés at early discos, where we went with our bosom friends and sometimes male family members (brothers, cousins) but as soon as a boy approached us for a dance there was a tacit consent that my friend and I may go home separately, and that was all right.

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Jan 22, ’11 I think I have been blessed and cursed by my capacity to remember down to minute details. But it surely helps me write!! You are very on target-dancing IS the bridge from childhood to adulthood-now that I think about it I wrote about it: “I Guess It Was Love.” All I have to do is hear the music and I am back there. I can still feel the wool of Larry’s jacket.

reply parsonsblvd wrote on Jan 22, ’11 Thanks for the memories Sue….I love nostalgia of all kinds (guess we all have a bit of Joe Franklin in us), and any memory from NY is priceless! Music always triggers days gone by doesn’t it? Thanks for another cool “Song Saturday”. : )

reply astranavigo08 wrote on Jan 23, ’11 Ah, Sis – memories…..I know exactly what you meant. One of the reasons I took up guitar and formed a band in high school was to capture the moment; to play for dances and watch as my friends danced to music that *I* made. It was a thrill. Truly.Dancing? Used to; when I was younger. It’s a kid-thing; something no one told me – if I really wanted to experience that era in my life, I needed to dance as much as possible. I didn’t dance nearly enough, as it turns out.

reply asolotraveler wrote on Jan 23, ’11 i recall ‘happenings’ from the mid to late 60s in college…. a challenging time indeed….

reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 23, ’11 Like I said…………..I just get the message ‘not available in your country’……….so after trawling youTube, I think this is a version that we can see over here 🙂 hope I found the right one…………..its certainly VERY nostalgic

reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Jan 23, ’11 LOVE the Skyliners. I think the group used to be Shep and the Skyliners.

reply parsonsblvd wrote on Jan 23, ’11 I love your playlist too here by the way….love these songs, lots of memories. : )

reply madisonpooface wrote on Jan 24, ’11 Oh no other sue, this is just way too much for me. I don’t want to be 15 again

reply moniquemkk wrote on Jan 30, ’11 Thanks for the nun anecdote. I’ll be thinking about that all week.

reply bonnymom wrote on Jan 30, ’11 What a great blog, Sue!