Love

 

I was listening to In My Room by The Beach Boys and I was transported back to another place and time. I was back in a place we called the Canteen or just Canteen. We were kids and we would go to Canteen. I don’t know where it was, probably a church basement. I don’t know how I got there, my parents probably dropped me off. But I do remember being there inside. Somehow I see myself standing against a white wall. The lights seemed dim and in the shallow semi darkness I could watch the other dancers on the floor. The music must have been a juke box but I don’t know how the songs were chosen. All I know is that I wanted to dance? To the fast ones I wanted to shake, rattle and roll, but to the slow ones I wanted to hold someone in my arms. I remember the tension of the waiting. The thinking and planning of who I would ask. Would she say yes, or might she say no. There was that excitement of anticipation of the not knowing and the building up of the courage to ask… do you want to dance. If or when the offer was accepted we then held each other in the sway of the ‘shoo do be shoo be do’ sounds. This was romance. In the still of the night, darling I held you, held you so tight, in the still of the night. I would wrap my arms around her and feel the brush of her sweater on my chin as we nestled. Holding each other for three and a half minutes, sometimes looking across the room, sometimes eyes closing in the moment. These moments, these songs, these words, in the still of the night, together they were the meaning and the feelings of  romance. The feelings of being in love. There was a union, a closeness, an intimacy that we felt swaying to the music and holding each other close. Wrapping my arms around her and feeling her warmth and embrace. The scent of her perfume. The softness of her neck and sweetness of her breath. It was so intense and yet so innocent. There was no kissing, nothing below the waist, nothing after the dance except a thank you and the walk back to my group and my position on the wall. I guess we were 12 or 13. It wasn’t high school yet. It was canteen. It was when love was mystical, mysterious and new. That was the allure, the fascination, the magical magnetic mystery of young love. 

Do you want to dance?

Thank you 🙏