Right in my era. Everyone looks momentarily like someone I knew, every shirt and skit looks like something I can remember from church dances. I had forgotten about the ribbons.
Church youth group dances. It's a strange thing. Out youth group was Christus Victor so there were Christus Victor Dances. Or you could go to OLPH* dances, that the Catholic youth groups would sponsor from Our Lady of Perpetual Help school. The Greek Orthodox kids had St George's Coffee houses, while the Methodists had St Paul's Coffee Houses. Holy Trinity or Sacred Heart Basketball. We don't notice the strangeness because we are used to high school and college teams, or even professional teams from Western "Saint" or "San" cities.
*The periods were still retained in initials in that era, so a flier would read O.L.P.H. Basketball or whatever
The dance began after an evening service, and was led by the church's pastor, who, according to Qutb's breathless account, lowered the lights and put a recording of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" on the turntable in an effort to get the few remaining wallflowers out on the dance floor. "The dance hall convulsed to the tunes on the gramophone and was full of bounding feet and seductive legs," Qutb later wrote. "Arms circled waists, lips met lips, chests met chests, and the atmosphere was full of passion."
ReplyDeleteQutb never mentioned the incident to [contemporary Arab student Saeed] Dajani, so neither he nor scholars know exactly when or at what church Qutb's dance took place. Such events were common, often drawing hundreds of students. Dajani, however, had a similar experience, albeit with a bit of a twist.
I, too, went to CYO dances when I was in high school. I don't recall any weirdness, and least none that I felt.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes watch a few old American Bandstand clips on YouTube. The 60's were my college days. I often wonder how many of those boys died in Nam.
It struck me as strange that a secular dance could be named "Christus Victor." I wondered what St Augustine or St Paul might have said about that.
ReplyDeleteRate of death would be 0.3%. 58,000 out of (2M males/year x 10 years) born 1946-1955 = 20,000,000. That seems amazingly low, doesn't it? It just goes to show how things can dominate our memories disproportionately if they had particular importance and we talked about them a lot.