I got to thinking, and I really do think I am going to keep writing blog posts even after this class is over. I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to write about up until an hour ago. Most people go to a coffee shop. I went to a pizza joint. The word joint is severely underused these days. As I was saying, I was sitting there and the song “Footloose” came on. This immediately gave me a flashback to my sixth grade talent show.
Now, I have never seen the movie Footloose. The original is older than I am. I just refuse to watch the lazy spawn of a reboot. Yes, I know the newer one got better reviews, but directors deciding to make reboots of classics is one of my biggest pet peeves. Just hit the drawing board and come up with original ideas, geez. Moving on, I was sitting in class one day and they had asked everyone who wanted to participate in the class talent show act to raise their hands. It was announced the theme was going to be Footloose. I took a quick scan of the room and only five out of the twenty-four kids in the class had raised their hands. One of the girls though was my crush. I never danced a day in my life but at that moment I sure as hell was ready to learn. I shot my hand up so fast you would think I got electrocuted. First day of practice, instant regret. I have never been one for classics so having to hear that song over, and over again was terrible. What made it worse, the song would be started from the top every minute until we got down the first few counts of the song. Pretty sure my eardrums became perforated that day. Fast forward two weeks and we finally get up to the couples’ part. This was my shot. So we all shouted who we wanted to be paired with at the same time. We’ll call her Rachel. So I quickly yell “Rachel!”, at practically the same time she yells my buddy’s name. That day I learned what a tumble weed rolling by sounds like. There was awkward silence for what felt like a minute until the mom instructing us made her own pairings. Still didn’t get paired with Rachel. I kid you not, I went home that night and contemplated quitting. The show was in a week. Learning how to grapevine, step-tap, and the iconic Footloose shuffling move was all for nothing now. I was told I had to stay in the show by my mom (I was still eleven at the time) so I did. The night of the show, still a bit salty, I went on stage ready to show off everything we had practiced. This was my first time performing anything in front of that large a group so I didn’t know what to expect. It was awesome. The feeling of wanting to poop myself on stage went away once the song started and the crowd started cheering. I wasn’t even thinking of Rachel anymore. Screw Rachel. I was just happy I stuck with it and made my mom happy. Later that night I went to the local pizza joint (I eat a lot of pizza) with friends to celebrate. These girls at the table behind us kept turning around to look at us. I had seen them around town and knew they were seventh graders. Next, the last thing I would’ve ever thought happened. One tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was the guy that performed the Footloose dance. I stuttered out a yes. She then wrote her number on a gum wrapper (I didn’t have a cell phone at the time) and told me to call her. Holy shit. I was still in elementary school and a middle schooler wanted me to call her. I chickened out and never did. Maybe I lost the gum wrapper. That part I’m not too sure about. It’s crazy to think about how one song can bring back so much. Music is one of those things in life that can take you to another place without actually leaving.
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Blurbs:This is where I speak about random life instances that could be a story with something to be gained from. Or, it may simply be that, a story. Archives
November 2016
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