We arrived at the long metal covered hall we called Miller’s Dance Hall. This family had a small grocery store across the street and this dance hall. This is where we were going.

Someone had gotten married in the community and the family had a community dance, everyone came from miles around. The cost for non-family was minimal a couple of bucks maybe. The dance was in full swing time when we got to the parking lot; we could hear the music from the car as we parked on the South side of the building.

People spilled out the brightly lit doors as they cooled off between dances and were lighting up cigarettes, and getting drinks from bottles concealed in paper bags. Everyone was cheerful and laughing.

Ronnie turned the car off and as I began to slide away to get out. He drew me back and gave me a long kiss, his lips parted a bit and his tongue lightly touched my pale-pink, lips tenderly, softly. His arms encircled me as he kissed me, pulling me tightly to his chest. Oh, the feeling made my head reel; made me block out where I was, everything disappeared except this moment. I kissed back, not really knowing how, just instinctively trying to prolong the moment.

With a sigh and a shiver he pushed me gently away, said, “we better be getting inside!” I nodded but at that minute, it was not what I wanted to do. Arm-in-arm we walked to that brightly lit portal which emanated loud Pop and Country Music.

We walked into the hall. Near the front of the building was a long bar, it was crowded with people getting beer and teenagers getting soda. Some of the costumers at the bar had a reddish glow on their faces indicating that they had already begun to show effects of the flow of liquor.

Most of these folks had a permanent redness gained thru working long hours in the sun, as most in here were dairy farmers and beef farmers or raised crops for sale. Theirs usually looked like freckles, reddish brown in color and were concentrated in the back of their necks.

Their close-cropped hair often had a white line around the edges of the hairline indicating where the tan line was before the haircut. Yes these were country folk, a no nonsense bunch who worked hard and played hard and lived close to poverty line almost continually. No one seemed to resent it because all were in the same boat so to speak.

My excitement was almost unbearable my feet felt the music right thru my shoes and I felt the familiar pull music had on me. I loved and needed to dance, it was a primal urge I felt in my very soul.

Ronnie had stopped at the bar getting a couple glasses of pop and a beer. And as we pushed thru the crowd around the bar and over to the place where small wooden booths were set up for seating Ronnie held me close in front of him my body touching his at moments in the crush. I felt his muscular hardness as my bottom and back made momentary contact. The crowd made a sudden stop and we collided softly, I looked backwards up at him, he grinned; I smiled back, I could tell he liked it too.

We found a tiny booth up near the dance floor. The music was so loud that normal speech was impossible, speaking in gestures he communicated that I stand up near him blocking the line of site from the burly security officer as he poured some brown liquor from the paper clad bottle into my soda. He quickly put it in back under the coat he had carried in over his arm. The two glasses of soda now with some whiskey in them were set on the booth in front of us.

I sat on the outside of the booth while Ronnie sat in the corner of the tiny cubicle; he pulled me in close to him. He put his arm around me and handed me the glass, the soda had the taste of both the whiskey and the soda, it wasn’t unpleasant and as I sipped, warmth began to spread all the way to my toes.