One of my elementary school friends sent me a video of a couple demonstrating Rock'n'Roll dancing...asking...do you remember when? It brought back lots of wonderful memories.
When I was 16, Rock'n'Roll was all the rage...and I was a dancin' fool. I loved it. It was called "Jitterbug" in the US...but we called it "Jive"...and it was wild. Back in my dancin’ days I wore tight jeans and had a pair of blue suede desert boots. I'm not sure why they were called "desert boots", but I was cool…and I used to go dancin’ every weekend at the Floreat Park Tennis Club…and occasionally at the "Snakepit", which was an open-air dance floor at Scarborough Beach. When Andy and I were last in Perth I showed him a plaque in the sidewalk, which commemorated where the infamous "Snakepit" used to be located.
A couple of weeks back I was in the Sportsman shopping for sox.. There was a display of men’s shoes. Right there in front of me was a pair of blue suede desert boots…exact replicas of my 1956 models.
As I stood there staring, a young salesman came up and said “May I help you sir?” I did not respond. He said again “Sir…may I help you”. I came back to reality and said. “I’m not sure…at this very moment I am in Australia…it’s 1956…and I am dancin’ in my blue suede desert boots.” Of course he gave me that strange look that hip young men give not so hip old men. I tried to explain:
“Do you know how special these shoes are?”…
”No”
”Have you ever heard Elvis Presley sing about his Blue Suede Shoes?”…
”No”
“Well son…you missed out...you’ve got a lot of livin' to do”.
I should have bought those shoes…but on the other hand I don’t have any skinny jeans…and I really don’t like blue suede shoes that much any more. But I did love dancin'...and Jivin'.
