Student Center

I think I discovered girls in 7th grade. Oh, I had some interest before that but it really bloomed in 7th grade. It might have been because the girls around me were blooming too. I am not exactly sure but I am sure that I was interested.

Mt. Pleasant had a youth center on the south side of the square. It was a place for kids to hang out, dance, and socialize. It had previously been in a building on the corner of Clay and Adams, cattycorner from the courthouse. This one was in a store front about directly across the street from the steam engine on the square. That whole half a block of buildings disappeared when they moved the Savings and Loan to that location. Thinking back on it I think it was great that someone provided this for the kids. I don’t think things like this exist anymore.

High school kids got to use the youth center a couple nights a week and junior high kids got one night. A junior high kid would never dare show up on one of the high school nights. Once in awhile there would be a dance at the youth center for one group or the other.

It was at a youth center dance that I first met one particularly mature 8th grade girl. She was taller than all the girls and most of the boys. I came up to her shoulders. Now I wasn’t totally inexperienced with girls but very close. I had taken two girls to the Rainbow dance. Yes, two girls at the same time and I got a corsage for each of them. One of the girls’ mothers knew my mother and they set the whole thing up. They pretty much used me to have an escort to the dance and usually dumped me the minute we stepped in the door.

But this 8th grade girl was different. Terry said she liked me so when the time came for another teen dance we somehow ended up with a date. My Dad had to drive me out into the country to pick her up at her house. I had a corsage for her, too. I have always thought that was an awkward tradition for guys to follow. Just exactly how are we supposed to pin something on a girls chest without touching something boys are not supposed to touch? Girls, I think, got a kick out of watching us try.

We got to the dance. She looked great and I was slowly getting more comfortable. That was until the first slow dance came up. In that position it put me face to face…no I guess it would be face to bosom with this girl. The trouble with dancing with a girl that is a foot taller than you and well developed is that you don’t know where to put your head. You can’t exactly look straight ahead. Looking to the left is kind of backwards. Looking to the right puts your cheek in inevitable contact with forbidden territory. I ended up with what I would call the swayback position. It was constantly causing me to lose my balance and start to fall backward, which also produced an undesirable effect for my partner.

That was my one and only date with that girl. Terry said she thought I danced weird and she moved on to someone else. I told Terry that was fine even though I was a little hurt. She had lipstick on her teeth anyway.