I woke up this morning thinking about the fifties. “The Great Pretender” by The Platters weaving its magic through my brain. My poodle skirt was one of five full circle skirts in my closet. And the number of crinolines you wore under your poodle skirt dictated how popular you were at school. Crazy, huh?
And that made me think of the other things that the really popular girls had that I wanted. I had one crinoline, they had at least three. Oh! and Jansen sweater sets. My parents could only afford one; the really cool girls had a set for every day of the week. Jansen sweaters had a lot of cashmere in them and they were expensive from my side of the tracks. (Stay at home Mom and a meat cutter Dad.) And I can still remember my first pair of white buck shoes. Every night I had to ‘paint’ white polish on them. They couldn’t be scuffed
or dirty, EVER!
‘Bad’ Girls were identified by four things: they drank beer, they dated servicemen (sailors in my town), they had their ears pierced and they would go out on dates to the drive-in movies. We all knew what happened there! You wouldn’t want to be caught dead talking to any of them if you valued your reputation!
And I was there at the birth of Rock n’ Roll. Bill Hailey and the Comets had just released their movie “Rock Around the Clock”. Elvis had stormed the world stage with “Heartbreak Hotel” and “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”. We loved him on the radio and on our 45’s, but parents were up in arms and would not let us ‘see‘ him. Those hips were scandalous! 
So the movie “Rock Around the Clock” finally comes to our little burg. It was a Saturday matinee and the house was packed with teenagers. Somewhere in the movie Bill Hailey sings his signature song. We couldn’t stay in our seats! “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock, five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock ROCK! nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock ROCK!……..We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight!” The aisles filled with teens dancing, doing the jitterbug. Laughing and singing along with the Comets. It was amazing!
The theatre manager thought he had a riot on his hands and called the police. We got a stern lecture and were told if we would stay in our seats they would turn the movie back on.
Do you remember cruising and the Drive-In?? After the football game, or dance, or a date for the movies everyone would pile into whoever had a car and cruise down the length of Lincoln St. through downtown and out First Street to Bernie’s Drive-Inn and drive slowly around and around the restaurant, checking everyone out while they checked you out. We’d either stop for a ‘malt’ or a ‘Coke’ or we’d reverse our cruising and drive back down First Street and up Lincoln…..we’d do that until someone had to get home before curfew. 
My last boyfriend in high school was older and had already graduated. He had a custom 1957 Chevy coupe. Very little chrome; everything was ‘leaded in’. It was the most gorgeous dusky pink.
Our ‘song’ was Party Doll by Buddy Knox. I was his party Doll and how I kept my virginity that year, I’ll never know!!
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, , Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.
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