Matty and I switched our unofficial seats so that we could sit directly across from each other. And we decided to just sit at the end of our section of friends so as not to disrupt anyone else’s spot; which according to the social rules of the lunchroom, made it look as though we were the least popular kids in our group. Fortunately, neither of us cared. My mom always packed extra cookies or other treats for me to give to Matty, since his parent’s discouraged sweets; and he always finished my leftovers, even if it was only the last bite of my sandwich or the crumbs at the bottom of my bag of chips. My mom always packed a frozen juice box in my lunch to keep my sandwich cold; I would drink the juice and Matty would finish the icy bits that remained.
Matty always walked to and from school, regardless of the weather, as his dad said it was good exercise. Even when we had our casts on, Matty was still expected to walk; however, my mom insisted she drive us both. His parents were too busy to even notice. Once the weather warmed up, and if Matty didn’t have an after-school sports practice, we would sometimes ask if we could walk home. We thought it made us more grown up to walk rather than to get a ride from a parent. But of course, we only wanted to walk if it was a nice day. It was a two-mile trek from our middle school to our block, and we would walk slowly, taking twice as long to reach our houses than if we walked at a normal pace. A few times my mom sent my dad out looking for us, worried we had been kidnapped or had gotten hurt as it was taking us so long to get home.
A big part of junior high were the monthly dances, which were held at a large church one Saturday every month. Anyone age eleven to fourteen was welcome, with admission costing two dollars. The dances were organized by the church’s youth group as a way to raise money for their activities. They also sold snacks such as cans of pop and bags of chips. I once asked my mom why a church allowed dances and she said it was because they were Presbyterians. Whatever that meant.
The ritual for these dances was always the same: Several of us girls would arrange to sleep over at one of our houses on the night of the dance. So, if it was my turn to host the sleepover, everyone would be dropped off at my house around six in the evening. Either my mom or dad would drive us to the dance, which started at seven; and one of them would pick us back up at nine to take us back to my home for the slumber party. There were nine dances every school year, and we alternated between houses for the sleepovers.
The dances were held in the church’s basement, a large room that was typically used for wedding receptions. There was always a D.J. on the stage playing the most popular songs of that time, and we had these ridiculous line dances we would do. They weren’t the country music line dances that many people know of, but they were similar and set to pop music. They were the only “fast dances” we knew of.
The girls typically huddled together in one half of the basement while the boys stayed in the other. Even though the dance was for all of the junior high students in our city, we rarely mingled with the kids from other schools. Our school was considered the “nice” school, and we didn’t want to associate with anyone from the “bad” schools; although no one was really sure what made one school “bad” and one school “good.” Many of us eventually became friends when we ended up in high school together, and we would laugh when reminded how we had avoided each other at the junior high dances.
It usually took a few songs into the evening before a boy would be brave enough to ask a girl to dance; and once one couple started, several others would pair up. Matty always danced with lots of girls, especially the less popular ones. He told me he didn’t want to see anyone left out. I wasn’t jealous as he always danced with me the most; I thought it was sweet that he went out of his way to include everyone. I would usually dance once with Jimmy; but otherwise, none of the other boys ever asked me to dance. Which was fine by me as I really didn’t enjoy dancing with anyone other than Matty.
The slow dance style of that time was for the girl to hook her hands around the boy’s neck while the boy put his hands around the girl’s waist. This left about twelve inches between the couple. We’d then rock back and forth while turning in a circle. Some of the older kids would try to dance with their full bodies touching, but the chaperones would break them up.
Matty and I were still wearing our casts during the first two dances after Christmas vacation, and we hammed it up dancing with each other using just our good arms perched on each other’s shoulders. I normally hated being the center of attention, but with Matty I felt safe. I also felt protected by Matty’s popularity; none of the other boys ever picked on me
