BANDSTAND

Back in my olden days as a teenager, just about every teenager became familiar with the latest singers and groups by listening to the radio or watching them perform on American Bandstand.  American Bandstand started locally in Philadelphia and premiered, nationally, in 1957.  Dick Clark was the host and, along with a group of teenage regulars, he showcased the Top 40 records.  Bandstand came on every afternoon.  Regular watchers of The Mickey Mouse Club tuned in Bandstand when they out grew Mickey Mouse.

It was through Bandstand that I got to see Bobby Darrin, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Connie Francis and many others perform their hit songs. If you wanted your own copy of a current hit song, you purchased a 45 rpm record.  The hit song would be on one side of the record with a second song on the flip side.  I also had a few posters of Fabian and Frankie Avalon in my room.

Bandstand was also where teenagers could keep up to date on the latest dance trends.  I still remember watching Chubby Checker on American Bandstand when he sang his hit song "The Twist"...

"Come On Baby, let's do the Twist.  Come on Baby, let's do the Twist.  Take me by my little hand and go like this." 

My friends and I would get up and dance along, too.  It was through Bandstand that I learned to do the "Mash Potatoes" .  You can be sure that these new kinds of dances weren't being taught at Mutual.  The new dance trends were rather frowned upon by the adults.  They didn't like the movements and certainly didn't like the music.

COTILLION

To ensure that the almost weekly dance instruction after Mutual didn't go to waste, every month my stake sponsored Cotillion.  Cotillion was the place where we danced the night away while learning proper social etiquette. Boys were expected to ask girls to dance.  I don't think that there was much standing around on the sidelines.  Often, more dance instruction would be given at the beginning of the evening.  Then we would either dance to records or a live dance band.

Our stake covered Washington DC and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. It was through Cotillion that I got to know some of the kids in the Maryland and DC wards.  More than once, I had a crush on a boy in a Maryland ward.  Cotillion was about the only place that I would have any contact with the boy. Even though Cotillion was a semi-formal event a couple of times a year, dates were not required.  We used to go in groups with usually a parent driving. 

Cotillion was a big part of my social life as a teenager.  I went to Cotillion, almost without fail, from the time I was in junior high until I graduated from high school.  These kind of dances, along with the annual Gold and Green Ball, have pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur today.  I think that it's kind of sad that an entire generation has missed out of the non-threatening, wholesome fun environment of church dances.

*FAMILY PICTURES

 
Back in the olden days, photographers would come to your home to take family pictures. Isn't this a lovely American Gothic photo? Since my younger brother, Alan, is missing, this picture was probably taken sometime between 1950 and 1951.  My father is at the back. My brother, David, is the one with ivy growing out of his ear.  My sister, Linda, is on the left and the only one with a smile.  Next to her is my oldest brother, John.  I'm the pouty girl sitting on my mother's lap. I think that I was afraid of the photographer, or just being contrary.  My oldest sister, Karen, is on the right.

This picture was taken before we moved to the red brick house. I'm most likely about three. My mother made the dresses that my sisters and I are wearing. Karen and Linda's dresses were made from pastel taffeta. Mine was a green and white checked dress trimmed with white rick rack. I'm not quite sure why we weren't all matchy, matchy in our attire. We are also sporting the hair dos achieved by using pin curls and bobbie pins.

 This picture was taken at the same time as the picture above.  From left to right are my father, David, Linda, my mother, me on my mother's lap, Karen and John.

This was taken when my oldest sister got married in September of 1959.  Prior to having this family picture taken, I had been outside playing with neighborhood kids.  I guess that my mother had failed to let me know that a photographer was coming to take pictures because I was kind of sweaty and my hair was dirty - thus the slicked back pony tail. I remember that I was called inside and told to hurry up and get changed for the picture.

On the back row, left to right, are John, Linda, David, Me and my sister's new husband, Niels.  On the front row, left to right, are Bobbie Lu, John's wife, who is holding their oldest child, Roy.  Next to her is my grandmother, Isabelle (my Dad's mother).  She had come from Utah to live with us for a while.  She was 81 in this picture.  Next is my Father, then my Mother, Karen and my brother, Alan.

When the proof for this picture came back, my mother was shocked that her skirt and Karen's skirt didn't cover their knees.  The photographer lengthened their skirts somehow....early photoshopping!

I see details in these pictures that kind of bug me.  In the first picture, the photographer should have noticed the ivy growing out of my brother's ear. Everyone should have been more right so that the we were centered against the mantle.  The window blinds on one side are open, while the other side are closed.

In the second picture, we all look pretty good with sweet smiles.  But it bugs me that Linda's socks are pulled up and kind of slouchy, while Karen's are folded down.

The only thing that is a little curious in the third picture is that you can see someone's arm on the stair railing in back.  I have no idea who it is.  I don't think this picture was taken at our home so perhaps it is a member of the family where the picture was taken.  I love it that both of my brothers are in full Boy Scout uniform.

In the fourth picture, the top of John's head is cut off.  The photographer should have raised the camera a little to show less leg and it would have solved the head cut off problem.  Again, one blind is open and the other shut. My brother in law has a candle growing out of his shoulder, while David has some kind of tail looking thing coming out of his shoulder. Alan looks like he's some kid that wandered in off the street and stood at the edge of the photo. At least every one is more or less smiling; well, except for my grandmother who was never very happy about being in Virginia, and...the newlyweds.

And as for me in the last picture, my mother must have been extremely distracted to not give me enough warning to properly get cleaned up for the picture.  She was always one who was keen on looking clean and respectable.

BLOCKBUSTER

There was a particularly memorable field trip when I was in junior high.  The movie "Ben Hur" was the much hyped, blockbuster in the early 1960s.  I saw it with my entire school grade (maybe 8th grade?) as a field trip.

I remember the excitement in anticipation of going to a big theater in Washington DC to see a REALLY big movie.   It was such a big deal that the girls were required to wear Sunday best and the boys had to wear jackets and ties.  We were gone from school for most of the day including a lunch somewhere in town.

I don't really remember if we went because the setting of the movie was relevant to a history class or if we went because it was such a hyped movie.  What I find interesting is that hundreds of students were taken on a school sponsored trip to see a movie that had definite religious over tones. In today's world of political correctness, such a field trip would never happen.  If it did, there would have to be parental permission to view the movie and if the parent didn't approve an opt out option would have to be provided.

Back in my olden days, the only thing required from a parent was the standard, generic field trip permission slip and money for lunch.  I think that the cost of seeing "Ben Hur" was paid for by the school.

It was a fun and exciting day.  I still love the movie "Ben Hur".

*SEEN IT ALL

Growing up in suburban Washington DC was great.  Even though I usually only went sight seeing in Washington when relatives came to town - which was a rare occasion - I've still seen most of the major tourist sites in and around the city.  Because of the proximity to DC, there were many school field trip into town.

I've been inside the Capitol, climbed all the steps up the Washington Monument, seen the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution in the Library of Congress.

I've been to both the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Mount Vernon, Lee Mansion and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.

My sisters and me in a picture that I think was taken at the Iwo Jima statue. Memorial Bridge and the Jefferson Memorial can barely be seen in the background just to right of the large tree.

I can't forget the hours spent in the Smithsonian Museum and the National Gallery of Art, either.  

There were family trips to Old Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown and Monticello.

I remember the feelings of awe and wonder as I toured these historic places. It really was a privilege to grow up where I did.

I'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER

There are certain events in history that have such a great impact that people will always remember where they were and what they were doing when it happened.  In my lifetime, there are three or four such days.

When John Glenn first took his first flight in space, I was in the 10th grade.  His son, David Glenn, attended my high school.  As his father went into orbit, the radio commentary was piped through out the entire school.  I listened to the broadcast in the school office where I had a class period as an office aide.  There was a collective cheer through out the entire school when Glenn's space mission ended successfully.  After all, he was OUR astronaut.

When John Kennedy was shot, I was a senior in high school.  I was an officer in the Future Business Leader's of America club.  Our big event for the year was sponsoring the Miss JEB Stuart contest.  During my last period class, English, I had been allowed to go to the stage to do some decorating for the event which was to be held that evening.  The announcement about the President being shot in Dallas came over the loud speaker.  I immediately returned to my English class and listened to the rest of the events that transpired. School was released early and all school events for the next few days were canceled.

When the first lunar landing took place, I was living in a duplex north University Avenue in Provo, Utah.  I had only been married a couple of years.  We had another couple over just to watch the landing with us. But I was also talking on the phone with a girlfriend who had just gotten engaged. I'm pretty sure that I had to make her wait for a minute or two when Neil Armstrong left the lunar module to step on the moon.  

On September 11, 2001, I was living in Salt Lake.  That morning, I had a Church Building Hosting Board Meeting on the 2nd floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  The events on the east coast were just unfolding as I was getting ready to leave for my meeting.  By the the time the meeting started at 9 AM, all the attacks had transpired in New York, and Washington.  Members of the Hosting Board gathered in a Public Affairs conference room where there was television feed.  Our meeting was forgotten. I watched the towers fall with a large group of people from Public Affairs and the Hosting Board.

Last night when news came of bin Laden's death, I was in my son's living room in Denver watching something mindless on television.  My son was upstairs studying for an exam, the grandkids were in bed, and my DIL was upstairs with my son.  She came running downstairs and told me that Osama bin Laden was dead. We watched the news together.

NOT A CULTURAL HALL

 Back in my olden days, LDS Church buildings didn't have cultural halls.  They all had gyms, complete with basketball hoops and, of course, there was a stage.  I have a lot of memories connected with the gym in the Arlington Ward Chapel.

On the stage of the gym, I performed in ward talent shows with my family. At one show, we sang one of my father's silly songs "Mormon Sunday School".  Each member of the family sang a verse.  Mine was one about David and Goliath.  In another show, I sang the song "Sisters" with my own sister, Linda.  I was also in the annual Mutual Roadshows.  I even had a Sunday School class that met on that stage.

The gym was also the setting every year for the Relief Society Bazaar.  For the bazaar, the women of the ward would spend weeks sewing, crocheting, knitting, baking, or making candy....all to be sold at the bazaar.  This was back in the days  before the standardized ward budget.  Wards had to raise their own money for activities.  It was a fun night for the entire family.

The gym would be transformed for the annual Gold and Green ball and New Year's Eve dance.  Streamers would be hung across the ceiling and there was often a mirrored Disco ball suspended from the ceiling.  The stage would be the place where a live orchestra would set up.  Also, back then any one twelve or over could attend the dance.  Older teenagers sometimes had dates. But whether you had a date wasn't important.  I still usually got a new dress and always looked forward to both dances. It was at the Gold and Green balls and New Year's Eve dances that I had my ballroom dancing skills refined by dancing with my father.

For mutual, we had our regular dance instruction in the gym, including square dancing.  In the summer, there was usually at least one square dance with a professional caller with the dancing being held in the church parking lot that was accessed directly from the gym.

And like most cultural halls, the ward gym saw plenty of men's basketball games and lots of kids who used the room for running off excess energy.