MY FAVORITE TEACHER WAS AN IRONWORKER

The Dance On the day Mrs. Wolbert announced the dance, I didn’t go outside at recess. I had other plans for recess as soon as I heard about the dance. I went to Mrs. Wolbert’s desk about ten minutes before the bell rang announcing recess. I asked Mrs. Wolbert if the boys in her room had to ask a girl from her room? “No, if one or two of you sixth grade boys want to ask a girl from Mrs. Long’s room I guess that will be okay.” A sudden wave of excitement, no, a wave of pure joy washed over me. Okay, maybe a wave of hormones. I was excited and scared all at once. The long hand of the clock was quickly ascending toward the twelve and the short hand was pointing directly at the ten. Way too soon it would be ten o’clock the recess bell would ring. I was scared. My brain kept repeating, “What if someone else asks her first? What if she says no? What if I just pee my pants?” My brain answered, “Oh, be serious, act your age, you’re a sixth grader. You’re being stupid. She’s just a girl.” “She’s JUST a girl. Are you kidding? She’s the cutest girl in the entire Surry Grammar School. She’s Elizabeth!” My brain screamed at my brain. Instead of devising a plan or doing my math I just sat there thinking of all the things that could go wrong. Maybe I wasn’t scared but I was petrified. “Bringggg, Bringggg” The bell announced recess. I walked into Mrs. Long’s room and was relieved to find that no other boy from Mrs. Wolbert’s room had the same plan. Then, I saw Elizabeth, the cutest girl in Surry, perhaps the cutest girl in the entire world, at least my world standing by her desk. She was talking with her friend, Linda. They laughed at something Linda said then went to get their sweaters from the coat closet. When Elizabeth and Linda had their sweaters they walked toward the door where I was standing. I had been standing there forever, frozen, my brain racing but clueless. They came toward the door with Linda in front. She said “Hi” as she passed me. Elizabeth looked at me and smiled and said “Hi” as she passed. Boy, she was cute when she smiled. Both of them passed me by. What was I thinking? I wasn’t really going to ask a girl to a dance was I? I’d just stay home and do dishes. That wasn’t so bad. Elizabeth and Linda were in the hall turning toward the front door when I heard a voice say, “Elizabeth, can I ask you something?” It didn’t sound like my voice, it sure didn’t seem to be mine. It was all squeaky and high pitched and broke up a little as it spoke. It couldn’t have been me who breathed out those words. Maybe I hadn’t, but no one else was there and the words caused a response so they must have been spoken. Elizabeth stopped and turned toward me and said, “Sure, what do you want to talk about?” My brain screamed again, “Nothing, nothing forget it.” My mouth said, “Well, Mrs. Wolbert told us there is going to be a Halloween dance and we have to invite a girl. Did Mrs. Long tell you anything about it?” “She said your room was going to have a dance. She said if some of us want to dance it would be okay. The dance is going to be upstairs in your room while the party will be down in the school basement like always. I think they are going to take all the desks out of your room and put them in the hall. Some of the kids are going to bring records to play. It’s going to be like a real record hop. Kind of like Bandstand.” I had heard about Bandstand but we didn’t have a TV so I had never seen it. “Yeah, that’s what it’s going to be like, like Bandstand” I said. “Are you going to the dance or just to the party?” she asked. “Oh, I guess I’ll go to the dance. I haven’t danced much but I guess I can learn.” I lied, I had never danced. “Sure, it’s not hard, we dance all the time at home” Elizabeth said as she pointed to Linda. “It’s not hard and I think it’s really fun. You’ll like it.” As she turned she asked, “Is that what you wanted to know?” “Well, sort of,” was the best I could offer. “You see, Mrs. Wolbert said the boys in her room have to ask a girl. So, umh, if you wanted to, I guess you could go with me. If you want to. If no one has asked you already.” I said this knowing it was impossible for anyone else to have asked her because all the other boys were out playing football with Earl. However, I left an easy out so it wouldn’t embarrass her or me if she said no. I was still a little scared. “I’d love to. I didn’t know anyone was going to ask me. I didn’t even know you liked me. I’ll talk to you more about it later. Okay?” Elizabeth headed off and joined up with Linda by the front door. She was a little taller than Linda so she bent down slightly to whisper in Linda’s ear. They both looked back to where I was standing still shaking slightly and each giggled just a little. They both smiled at me, Elizabeth was so cute when she smiled, then they disappeared out the door. Out on the front walk they turned left to go play on the east play ground. As I stood in the hall I noticed my hands were sweaty and my heart was pounding. I was fully aware that there was a difference between friends and girl friends.