Let’s Dance*

*True story of Al Zimbler’s life as it appears in his seventh short story humor book BEDTIME STORIES FOR NIGHTTIME LOVERS

The song is over but the melody lingers on. It was during my high school days when I learned how to dance. Crane Tech was an all-boys high school. Dance was not taught in the gym program. For that effort we had to go to Lucy Flowers, an all-girls high school. Once a week for one semester we walked the mile to that girls’ school. There the phonograph and the vinyl records were ready for the lessons.

Even before we got on the dance floor we were given rules. Rule number one: “Do not put your right hand on the girl’s back lower than the top of her butt.” Rule number two: “Be sure to leave it there during the entire dance.” Rule number three: “Escort her back to the chair she was sitting on when you had asked her for that dance.” Other rules were also given: “Do not hold the girl too close to your body and no dipping of her at the end of the dance.”

With all these directions it was hard to follow the slow music on the phonograph. “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and “Girl of My Dreams” were two of the songs I remember. There was no jitterbug dancing in vogue at that time.

It wasn’t until about a year later that swing music came in. Big time swing orchestras like those of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller were starting to be noticed and I got the message. I wanted to learn how to jitterbug. And so I sought out one of the guys who was a club member of mine. Club member you ask? In those days every bunch of young guys had a club. We would meet in someone’s basement and have meetings and collect dues of five cents or more and talk about – what else – girls.

Donny Boroff taught me how to do the jitterbug and I became a zoot suiter. I did wear a long chain on my pants. However, I didn’t smoke cigarettes, drink or chew gum. And the song that represented me during those years was “In the Mood” played by the Glenn Miller band. The follow-up to that one favorite song of mine was “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Those two songs epitomize my musical and dancing skills and desires at the age of 16.

Before I took that high school dance class and then learned how to jitterbug, I was what one would call a “nobody” in grammar school and high school. I wasn’t a top student and I didn’t hang out with the “in” crowd. But once I learned to jitterbug, I gained confidence in meeting those of the opposite sex. The fact that I attended an all-boys high school did not advance my skills with teenage girls. Crane Tech taught me woodshop, foundry skills, printing, electrical, and other crafts that did not lift up my grade point average. Few of us were planning to go to college for this was during the late 1930s before World War II had started.

In my youth I was able to show off while doing a jitterbug by throwing my left foot into the air aimed at my dance partner’s face. Everyone who saw this was amazed and worried that I might hit my partner’s face with my foot. I never had that happen. And those two favorite songs of mine were the ones that I spent a lot of money on. To me it was a lot of money when I had to put a dime or a quarter into a jukebox in order to listen to those two songs that had set up my feeling of being able to dance and join the crowd on the dance floor and feel as if I belonged there.

Most couples celebrated their marriage by doing a slow dance after their wedding ceremony. My wife Ruth and I did a jitterbug on the dance floor.

These days I don’t jitterbug. I do dance at weddings and Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties. It’s back to the old days of right hand on the back and not too close to my partner’s body. But I cheat all the time because my dance partner is still my wife and, although we are a few pounds heavier and a few inches shorter, I’ve still got rhythm and am always in the mood.