Wednesday, April 5, 2017

A to Z Challenge: Dances



Dances were a pretty common activity at Brigham Young University when my DH and I were dating, so we did attend a few during our courtship.  In fact, we met at a ward dance.  In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a congregation is called a ward, and at BYU the single students were divided into singles wards, where the congregation was composed entirely of single students.  It was the start of the Spring Semester in May.  DH had just moved into the apartment complex next door to the complex where I was living.  On Friday May 8th our ward held an opening social dance so we could get acquainted with newcomers to the ward.   My cousin was visiting me that weekend, so we went to the dance together.   There were some mixer dances to encourage us to get to know people we hadn't met before, and this really cute dark haired guy introduced himself to me and we danced several dances together.  At the end of the evening he asked if I would like to go and get some ice cream or something, but I couldn't leave my cousin alone, now could I?  So I turned him down.   However, it's pretty easy to find out the phone numbers of other students in your ward, so it wasn't long before this cute guy called and asked me to come and bake some alphabet cookies with him.  

There were other dances that summer and fall too.  On Saturday July 25th we had a picnic in the nearby canyon with several of DH's friends and their dates.  Afterwards we rode the tram to the top of Bridal Veil Falls where we attended a dance held in the restaurant above the falls.  I'm not particularly fond of heights and tram rides and such, but the evening was worth it!

 I'm not absolutely certain at which dance the above photo was taken at, but I think this was the dance held during Freshman Orientation week on September 5, 1981.   Of course DH and weren't freshmen.  He was 22 and I was nearly 21 and we both had quite a bit of school under our belts.  We had just spent the summer getting to know one another and I had just received my missionary call and assignment to go to Colombia the week before, and would be beginning my missionary service in less than two months.  So even though we were happy to be dancing and spending time together, this evening was also a bit bittersweet.  

DH is a pretty darn good dancer.  I don't do quite as well, but we can usually do a pretty mean swing together if the music is just right and I relax and don't think about it too much.   And let's face it, look at the flowers he bought me!!  Yes, he was quite the catch.  What was I thinking, leaving him behind for some other lucky girl to find?



No comments:

Post a Comment