How about a trip down Boogie Woogie's Memory Lane. (That's Half Past Old and parallel to Outta Shape) Don't worry. I'm not going to be dancing. Found a couple of kids on You Tube, shown at the bottom of the post.
It was around 1943. The war was going on, hot and heavy. My Father was in the Navy, stationed out of Norfolk, Va. It seemed as if every ship in the Navy was stationed at Norfolk and the town was jam packed with wives and kids. Housing was an impossible situation.
Mrs. Powell, a wizened little woman who wore her long cotton stockings rolled at her ankles, supported herself by giving music lessons and renting out rooms of her old Victorian mansion. We thought we had hit on a stroke of luck because she not only rented us 2 big rooms but let us use her kitchen. I was in the 7th grade and she said I needed proper nourishment. That meant grits every morning. Oh well. But there were some great perks. Eventually we became like one family and she and my mother went into business together stretching lace curtains. That's right, lace curtains were the vogue and most housewives were afraid to wash them. So my Mother and Mrs. Powell took in curtains, you might say. It was good for my Mother because my Father was on his ship fighting the war much of the time.
Mrs. Powell's piano students hung around the big old dining room with the grand piano even when they didn't have lessons. Her favorite student was David, a skinny eighteen year old with a crooked spine, unpopular with the girls, but in demand for his piano talent. David became a part of the Madison Street family of sailors and wives. OMG we danced Boogie Woogie on that old wood floor with poodle skirts flying and saddle shoes hitting the floor. I could hardly wait until school was over so I could rush home where there was always music and dancing going on.
It wasn't all happy happy because we were smack dab in the middle of a war, but that's a downer right now and I'd rather you take a peek at the Boogie Woogie dancers. It was so much fun..... still is, only I puff now when I dance it.
Anybody else old enough to remember Boogie Woogie?
