Two 16-year-old kids went to a record hop. They didn’t go to the same school. The dance must have been either church-sponsored or a joint dance between their two schools. He went to a co-ed parochial school, she went to a girl’s parochial school -they were both Irish, and Catholic.
There’s a picture of the girl around that time, 16 years old, going to another dance, her face lit up with excitement, her hair swooped up in a big early 60s bouffant.
The girl was at the dance only because her best friend was sneaking out of the house to meet her boyfriend, and since the girl had a car, she would act as getaway driver for her best friend. Nice to know that teenage-girl melodramas are never out of style. But once at the dance, the girl found herself being pursued by a nice boy who happened to be there.
The boy had black hair, and a handsome pale face. The girl was a brunette, with freckles, and light blue eyes. They met. They danced.
The boy recklessly offered to give the girl a ride home from the record-hop. After all, isn’t that what a gentleman would do? You at least need to make the offer. The girl said, “No, that’s okay, I drove here myself.” There was a long pause, and then the boy (who had actually ridden his bike to the record-hop, had no car, and had offered her a ride having no idea how he would pull it off if she had said, “Sure”) said, “Then – can I have a ride home?”
A couple of weeks later, someone was having a party. The boy was still thinking about the brunette with the freckles and the blue eyes. He, through various manipulations and teenage-boy strategies, made sure that a friend of her friend would get that girl to the party. The girl showed up. There was much flirting going on. It was all very exciting. The girl and her good friend were in one room and they were doing a dance (which, having SEEN the dance myself, looks kind of like the hustle) that they had learned for a Christmas concert at their school. It was an impromptu dance and all kinds of things were actually going on. The girl knew the boy was watching. The girl was pretending she didn’t know the boy was watching. It was all very delicious. The girl likes to pretend she is not a show-off, but she’s a Leo, she can’t help herself. The boy sat off to the side, watching the freckled blue-eyed girl do her hustle-like dance and at the end, he clapped.
We all know what THAT means.
Eight years later, the boy with the black hair and the pale skin and the girl with the brown hair, freckled skin, and blue eyes, were married.
They now have four grown children, and one grandchild (well, two – counting the one who is on its way!)
This past year, on February 18, my parents had their 41st wedding anniversary.
But there’s another anniversary we always remember in our family. That’s the December 28th anniversary, which was yesterday. That was the day when two Irish-Catholic Massachusetts kids met at a record hop, and danced and laughed, and he pretended he had a car just so he could offer her a ride home.
Beautiful- just beautiful.
That’s fabulous Sheil…
Well, Happy Anniversary to those two Irish sweethearts.
Why must you make me cry? Tears of sweetness, but still. You O’Malleys are good at that!
Thank you for sharing.
im crying for so many reasons…thank you for that beautiful story and my love that extraordinary boy and girl!
p.s. is Brendan with child again? it will ruin his figure!
This is beautiful.
We should all be so lucky!
That’s just the sweetest story! I always try to retell my parents’ coupling, but there’s is so much more complicated and torrid…your parents sound sweet! Good for your dad, to offer a ride–tricky Irish men!!
You wrote it so beautifully, I thought you were retelling your own memory….though I guess it was hard to explain the 60s hair style, but hey…
Just gorgeous. The whirligig of time…..
I love a.) that the boy offered the ride with no car. b.) he clapped at the end of the dance. 16 years old. Mighty.
::sob::
So lovely, Sheila.
Gorgeous. I have never heard that story. And I must see the dance.
Love you. Hope misses you. She liked the story, too.
I love the fact that BOTH of them had plans. You know? Although there was chance involved, when they knew it was time to get down to making something occur, neither of them hesitated.
That says volumes.
I love that. Now…maybe I’m confused, but was there also a story about “would you like a straw with that?” at some point in time?
What a great story! I absolutely love hearing the story of how people meet and fall in love…ahhh.
Cousin Mike – Mighty, indeed.
Alex – what a lovely observation. Thank you for that. Yes, when the opportunity came … they maneuvered it so that they could say “yes” to it. Bless them.
February Wedding day
On December 28, he offered her a ride home from the record hop even though he had no car. When she got home that night, she told her older sister Anne that she had met a boy at the record…