From The Past: October 20, 2006

For dinner last night, I made a large pot of vegetable soup. Technically, it’s vegetable beef, but I call it vegetable anyway. It was delicious; so delicious in fact, that I had another bowl for lunch this afternoon.

It warmed me right up on this chilly day.

Ashley went to her first dance this afternoon, after school. It was held at the middle school Andrew attended years ago. There were fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. It looked as though they had several hundred kids attend. I know Ashley is only ten years old, but I wasn’t worried about her. This is a good school and they always have plenty of supervision by school employees and parents. In addition, I feel it’s good for her to be around kids from other schools here in the county.

She came out smiling and said she had a great time. I was probably thirteen when I attended my first dance. I was in junior high and the dance was at night in a school that no longer stands, which breaks my heart.

The gym was dark except for flashing, colored lights and the music was very loud. I remember having to scream at my friends in order to carry on a conversation. At that age, most boys were too embarrassed to ask a girl to dance, but we didn’t care. We formed our own circle of girls and danced together. I remember them playing “The Dog”. I don’t remember doing any dirty dancing, but I know I saw some!

I can clearly remember my dad walking in the gym dressed in his police uniform. He worked nights and he was coming to check on me and make sure I was having a good time. I guess this would have embarrassed a lot of kids, but not me. I was proud that everyone knew he was “Tami’s dad”. He watched us dance for a few minutes and then left. Later that night, he kidded me about the way we had danced which made me laugh. I bet if I asked him right now to show me how we danced, he would still remember. Parents do tend to remember things like that.

Maybe next time, I’ll sneak in and watch Ashley.