My Summer of 1974

 


That summer, in 1974, I got a job as a dishwasher at P.O.E.T.S. in Fat City, an area near Lakeside Shopping Center. Disco dancing was all the rage and discotheques were popping up all over Fat City. I altered my East Jefferson High School I.D. card to say I was 18 years old, the legal drinking age, even though I looked younger than my true 14 years, but I had attitude.


We would wash dishes until 9:30PM, wash our faces off in the sink, change into a Lacoste alligator shirt (I never once bought a silk polyester shirt), and then go over to The Showboat, Act IV/Ski Lodge, Crystal Palace or The Godfather, wherever we could get in, and we would just watch the girls disco.


Occasionally I would go out on the dance floor and try to “Bump” or “Hustle” dance with one of the older girls, you know, like a 19 or 20 year old, but they would just smile at me and dance away, but I did try. I kind of felt like a puppy trying to saddle up to a much larger, more mature girl dog.


© 2022 Jeffrey Pipes Guice

My Wonder Years: A Book

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