The Record Hop

Every Friday evening during my last high school years was reserved for the Notre Dame Record Hop.

Notre Dame is a Catholic prep school for young men in Harper Woods, a suburb north-east of Detroit, Michigan. I went to the University of Detroit High School on the west side, also a young men's prep school. But, Jesuit. We had the occasional "sock" hop; so-named because we had to remove our shoes to dance on the school basketball court. But, at Notre Dame it was a weekly affair, and it drew kids from all the surrounding schools. So many new girls to meet and hook up with. "Hook up" in the day meant a telephone number and perhaps a date. I fell in love every Friday night at the record hop.

The festivities at Notre Dame were presided over by the popular Father Bryson, the "Disc Jockey Priest." I remember each time at the front door paying my two dollar admission and having my hand marked with an ink stamp as proof of having paid. Father Bryson was always there as a friendly and welcoming greeter. 

I'm reminded that the signal for the end of the evening dance was Percy Faith's Theme from a Summer Place. It was also the high point of a successful evening when if you found someone you liked you shared that romantic slow dance together. Father understood the teenage heart.

I was a shy fellow. There was a girl, Meryl, from Denby High. She was a regular, always inseparably with her two beautiful friends, Edith (Ead-It) and Maureen (Big-Mo). Meryl resembled Twiggy. Exactly.

I pined for her from afar, too nervous to make an approach. Then one day she passed me by in the hall just off the dance floor and poked me in the belly. Now, that was a clear signal of interest. Up until then she was as aloof as any teenage girl could ever be. I asked her to dance. Even went out for a date. 

But, alas, as we've all been there, the fantasy and the reality sometimes don't match up. Probably for both of us.