The First Greatest Day….or, the Swim; scuff marks style!

I tucked my hair behind my ear, again, and gathered everyone together. I was never this bold unless I wanted something badly. I had to win this dance contest…and I knew exactly how to do it.

It was 1995 and my middle class team, the Barracudas, had chosen us to represent them at the Sock Hop Dance Contest. I looked around at my team;

Chris, the one who always did the best break dances and the school dances. He had called me “Hanukkin” once, but I had forgiven him…after he forgave me for calling him “Kwanzzakin.”

Jessell, who I knew was going to smoke. Her whole family participated in Hot August Nights, a 50’s celebration of cars and dance, and she was in all the parades. We used to spend nights at her house learning new dance routines; the only one I retained was Stop! In the Name of Love.

John, Tyson and Robert; my boys. They were like my brothers, but they couldn’t dance worth a damn. They were willing to go for it though, and so was I. The rest of the kids I didn’t know personally…so I had to give them a pep talk.

I got them into a circle and whispered so the other teams wouldn’t hear me.
“Okay guys. We might not be the best dancers here, but we know the moves, right? And here’s where we are gonna win this thing…” Everyone moved in closer, anticipation on their faces.

“When they call out to do the swim…Hit the pavement.”

“Say what?” Chris said, looking at me like I was crazy.

“Do the backstroke…on the floor of the gym. The crowd will go crazy and we will WIN this.” Everyone slowly smiled, realizing we had this thing in the bag.

We put our hands in, counted 1, 2, 3, and shouted a “Go Team,” and we went out to the gym floor. Midway out I stopped in my tracks, causing the others behind me to slam into each other. I turned around and shouted over the roar of the crowd, “DON’T CHICKEN OUT!”

My heart pounded in my chest, I could feel it all the way up to my throat. This was it. “You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog” blarred over the loudspeakers, and the voice over the microphone shouted, “The Monkey!”

I was proud of Robert, he went for it with gusto. People were laughing and pointing at us already. We had drawn them in…we waited, dancing The Monkey like our lives depended on it.

“The Hand Jive!” The voice shouted.

“Follow Jessell and I!” I shouted to the others, a look of panic had crossed their faces. The Hand Jive was one that everyone always got wrong. Everyone except Jessell and I-we could do it in our sleep.

Twice on the knees, clap twice, the hand shuffle, fists one on top of the other, the double hitchhicker and back to the knees. After two times our guys had it down. “The Twist!” was an easy one, we had no problem with that. Across the gym I saw a couple go all dirty dancing style, and the teachers approaching them to disqualify. Hee.

“The Masted Potato!” “The Jerk!” “The Swim!”

It had become our time.

As soon as we heard “The Swim!” Time stopped. I looked around at my team. We all nodded, ready to put our plan into action. We all seemed to drop at the same time, in slow motion. Looking up at the gym ceiling, I smiled. Time returned to normal speed and I heard the crowd roar as we swam in a circle on the gym floor.

Other teams tried doing it when they saw the reaction, but we were the originals. We had done it. When they cheered for us, we knew we had won. We still jumped up and down and encouraged when the time came to “vote” (i.e. screaming when the say your team’s name).

But when they called our names, I jumped higher than I ever had before…I felt like I was soaring, and the noise of the crowd died away as well all hugged each other. I remember thinking “this has got to be the best day of my life.”