'hold onto that feeling...'
the piano chords start....his voice shouts "Just a small town girl...."
It's Journey, and my cousin's reconsidering leaving the dance. She tells her spouse with suitcoat in hand, her lethargic son, and her cousins who are carpooling to head back to the dance floor.
It's a song she heard in high school but is so classic that it seems to transcend generations. She wonders how six year old kids know the lyrics and dance to this 80s song that their mothers probably danced to.
First time i heard this song was in 'the wedding singer' starring adam sandler and drew barrymore. Sandler also uses this song in his film bedtime stories, where he tells stories to his children and it actually comes true.
Some other classic rock standards are playing
My cousin's holding a tumbler with ice water, a black straw and a lime. She takes me to the dance floor, me the wallflower i am. She's tired from dancing on the floor to some other songs. Uncle is about to head to the floor and she tells me to hold onto her drink. She has to have one dance at least with dad. reasonable. I take the glass put it down and head to where my carpool party is swaying back and forth.
it's 'you shook me all night long' by ac/dc's playing. I can see my other cousin's husband jumping up and down with his rock salute goin' up and down.
another tune's playing, some inappropriate pop tune's playing and the dance moves are flying left and right. But my cousin's husband trying to teach me and my brother some line dance moves. we follow him but we end up bumping into each other. Then my aunt steps onto the dance floor and she motions to us with her feet movements that she's gonna do the electric slide. we follow her lead and soon, all four of us are doing the electric slide. Then all the dancers become spectators, curious at what the sensation is.
It's like that scene in "Saturday Night Fever" when all the people just dance in sequence, led by the music and not by how clumsy or awkward their movement looks like. It's just rhythm and movement, in unison. You gotta feel it and not worry about how silly it is.
we exchange our thanks, shake some hands, give some hugs and exchange our farewells.
As we leave for the 'second time,' ' sweet child o' mine' is playing and we leave. It's a suitable ending to the wedding festivities. Back to the car, catch some zzz's and then meet up tomorrow morning for the brunch.
I'm told later that the party ended a few mins after we left. The party favors stood untaken and up for grabs. Took some time to deal with them and the ones left headed over to denny's for some midnight grub and to catch up. Feels like prom night and the only place to eat and shoot the breeze is an american diner, like Denny's, where breakfast is served all day and night, slices of pie and cake rotate in a glass display and Heinz ketchup and mustard are at your beck and call, next to the salt and pepper shaker and them square napkin dispensers.
I miss those nights, staying up late after a long day of pictures, dancing and all the while getting all dressed up, pretending we're rich and sophisticated, all that, but it's a rite of passage, prom or ball that is, to just celebrate our next stage in life, after high school.
Where college happens, we start to be more independent in our responsibilities and duties. The music keeps playing in my mind. Wedding music, from Mendelssohn to BeachBoys, The day began and ended with music.
I suppose wedding playlists are important. The music starts us off by indicating when the groom enters the sanctuary and when to rise to greet and honor the bride as she enters in her wedding dress.
Then the night is young, the guests start tapping their feet, strutting their stuff. Or the anniversary dance where the couples in love are requested to report to the dance floor. Then the years are counted off. And the last couple on the floor tell us how long they've been together.
A couple, very much in love, revealed to the crowd that they'd been together for half a century. Astounding applause as they still swayed together as the wind. Not relishing in the flattery but enjoying each other's presence.
The music, the dance, the songs we sang together.
'somewhere in the night....don't stop believin'.....'
' sweet child of mine' by guns 'n roses is playing, bellowing from the speakers. It's a great send off.
