What did you do in sophomore year gym class? Exercises? Basketball? Running?
Well, you haven't lived until you have learned to square dance in gym class. Oh my! Talk about embarrassment. In 1967, with excruciating pain and humiliation, the sophomore class learned to allemande left and do-si-do. I wonder if it was as painful for the gym teachers as it was for the students?
Ma, the girls' gym teacher, and Coach, the guys' gym teacher, were the co-teachers in this strange new journey. Ma was about 6 feet tall and like a drill sergeant; Coach was the football guy, nice, but awkward trying to teach us to dance.
First things first: We walked into the gym to find that the curtain to separate the boys from the girls was pulled back. We were told to line up, girls on one side of the room, guys on the other. Then we walked toward each other until we each had a partner. No one was quite sure who one would end up with until you matched up in the middle of the room. Ugh! You were stuck with that person for 3 weeks until the unit was done.
My guy could at least follow directions and we successfully learned the intricacies of the dances. Others were not so talented and failed miserably. Did we like it? Hell, no. Mercifully, the unit ended quickly and we went back to badminton and volleyball and our segregated lives behind the curtain..
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