A Little Fall Dancing

In my last blog I mentioned going to football games.  Going to the first High School home game was always such a thrilling time.  I remember one year, we were so excited because we had just purchased a clothing item called legotards.  They were opaque, thick, colored stockings that were like panty hose (except panty hose weren't invented yet.)  If you guessed they were tights, you are right.  That name wasn't invented yet, either.  So we put our new leg warmers on and our wool slacks.  We wore wool sweaters which often made me itch.  And then, we wore jackets.  At the game, some bold girls had blue legotards on with plaid wool Bermuda shorts.  What a fashion statement!

I love the chill that was in the air.  Some of us had homemade confetti cut from newspapers.  We bought a bag of the colored, expensive stuff and mixed it with the newspapers to have quality and quantity. Whenever there was a touchdown or a great play, we threw our confetti.

The High School band always got me going.  If I grew cold, I could dance up and down to the beat and warm up.  I didn't really understand football then.  I don't get it now either.  But that didn't stop me from having fun.  I knew our cheerleaders and I always cheered along with them.

I had just seen the movie West Side Story.  It was this year, I believe, that I walked home from the stadium with music in my heart.  I ran a few steps, twirled around,  and then threw up my arms into the air like the dancers in that movie.  From one corner to another, I danced my way with glee.  There wasn't much traffic along the way, and I wasn't in the popular set anyway, so I had no fears of looking like a fool.  I wasn't hurting anyone and I remember it as one of the few truly free times in my life.  That's what the autumn air did to me, back in my youth.


On another note about fall, I was driving down a country road recently and the yellow trees ahead of me started to drop leaves in a shower of glory.  They were small, yellow bits that shifted on the breeze as they fell.  It was like soft early snowflakes, only yellow.  As I approached, the leaves just kept falling and flowing in an enchanting style.  Then I passed them and the trees were lovely, but normal.  How I wanted to just drive into that new place of extraordinary beauty where the leaves seemed to be dancing to their own tune.