Me and JT boogie down.
I was heading into the bank drive-through when The Hustle came on the oldies station. I cranked it up. My sensible Toyota Rav-4 morphed into a time machine and I was transported back to “Uncle Dunkels“. Disco is king and this is the bar of choice in my hometown for 19-year-old dancing queens like me.
My girlfriends and I have been lucky enough to snag a tiny, rickety table at the side of the dance floor. Each of us is nursing a Sloe Gin Fizz or Tootsie Roll – drinks are expensive here, so you only order one. When The Hustle comes on, we all jump up and take our rightful places. This is one of the few dances you can do without waiting for some guy to take you out on the floor.
You’ve got to be careful out here. The squares of multi-colored lights that make up the dance floor flash in time with the music. They can bring on a seizure. You could fall off the edge of the platform. Even more likely, you can lose an eye to a flying mane of Farrah Fawcett hair. We all have the same hairdo. Each strand on our heads has been stiffened to lethal weapon status by a crust of heat-&-humidity-defying Aqua Net.
Several hits of 180-proof vodka in the parking lot have us lubricated to the point that we’re dancing fluid and easy. (step back, back, back, back; step up, up, up, up) The floor isn’t big, but we all know the steps and soon everyone is synchronized. (spin left, 2 ,3, 4 then right, 2, 3, 4)
It’s mainly girls out here. Most of the guys are lounging around the perimeter of the floor in their Qiana shirts and puka-shell necklaces, the better to check out the talent.
They don’t really care how much dancing talent we have, though. They just want to see the equipment move.
I close my eyes and I am Karen Lynn Gorney in Saturday Night Fever. I had a dress just like the one in the poster, except it was yellow. I’m not Donna Pescow because she never gets John Travolta. I don’t know why – I like her better than Karen, even if she’s chubby, and I think she’s a better dancer. But that’s just my opinion. John didn’t ask me what I think. (tap front, 2; tap back, 2; tap front, then back; then to the side, ¼ turn hop)
Now John Travolta is begging me to be his dance partner for the next big competition because I’m the smoothest white girl on the floor. (reach up right, plunge down left; again, up right to down left, hips swinging)
I’m spinning my arms and squirming in my seat, singing at the top of my lungs when I become aware that the 22-year-old bank teller is looking at me. She’s done with my transaction and is waiting for me to remove my receipt from her drawer. The expression of polite friendliness that she knows she is supposed to wear is losing a battle for supremacy with “are you kidding me?” horror.
I shrug my shoulders – “what are you gonna do?” – smile sheepishly and grab the receipt before exiting quickly. I stop short of a full squeal-of-tires-peel-out because, after all, I have to live in this town in the here and now.
If John Travolta had picked me, we would have wiped the floor with the competition.
Peg-o-Leg's Ramblings 
Too funny! Anything Earth, Wind & Fire gets me going and takes me back to being 19, drinking Screwdrivers and dancing in my “inside-outside” jeans at “Crazy Pete’s” at the Peru Mall. It was a Gyros place by day, disco by night.
These days I am in my pj’s by 9pm, and I play EW&F for house cleaning motivation. I highly recommend “Boogie Wonderland” for dusting and Swiffering.
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Ha! I can just see you as a disco queen. Did you have the big hair?
I’ve got EW&F on the Mp3 player for the treadmill. I’m going to have to try it for housework – might get me motivated!
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LOL! you still have it in you, Peg.
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You mean the dancing queen? Only while in the car, doing housework or well and truly sloshed. And that doesn’t happen very often.
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Thanks for the memories Peg!! Now that The Hustle is in my brain I’ll be dancing around the house all day… I might even get something accomplished…
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Just as long as you still remember the steps, you’re good.
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Fabulous. You and John certainly would have won. And I agree – that HAIR was DANGEROUS!
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And EVERYWHERE. Girls with fine, thin hair were in hairdo hell.
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Hilarious! Absolutely hilarious! When I stop laughing I’m going to you tube for walk down memory lane.
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You mean a stroll down the Soul Train dance corridor, right?
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I bet that bank teller is still talking about you, in between pushing people to get debit cards, of course. Too funny!
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My small town, non-chain bank doesn’t push that stuff like your son’s bank. They’re the old fashioned kind of place.
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I had the Saturday NIght Fever soundtrack on vinyl. Good stuff. My car-dancing taste skews more toward Springsteen, but I’ve had my share of amused fellow drivers. Good for you! Get down with your bad self.
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I have the sountrack on my MP3 and routinely listen to it at the gym. “stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive, ah, ah, ah, ah..”
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Sloe gin fizz…..now I want one. And some BeeGees
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Was there a Farrah hairdo somewhere in your past?
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I’m looking for a photo…….
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Whadda ya mean, in the past? Is the ‘Farrah’ over? I mean, is my hairdo finally outdated? Oh, shucks. Knew I should have gone with the Richard Simmons…that shiz’s timeless.
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For MOST people it’s over, but on you it looks good. Don’t change a thing!
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So ……. Can we expect to see you on Dancin’ With The Stars any time in the near future?
DS
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Not unless they start a “Dancing With The Middle Aged Former DIsco Queens Who Have to Drink a Bottle of Wine Before Hitting The Dance Floor” version.
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Amusing, I like that. Liquid courage.
Here you go, just for you, a throw-back to that Golden Age in Time ….
DS
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Ha! That’s hysterical! I don’t know that I’d approach Barry for advice, though, since he clearly has some problems of his own (like being unable to move his face).
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Don’t worry about what someone who was born in 1989, thinks. You get down! Let the funky Peggy fly! Let the fly peggy get, funky.
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Solid.
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John, you crack me up! Get down with your funky self, Peg! 🙂
Too fun!
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Go on with your boogie-tastic self! I bet you were the highlight of that teller’s day.
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I don’t think so. She had a serious “what-ever” look going when I peeled out.
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Our whole family would magically appear from whatever worm hole we were hiding in whenever Earth Wind and Fire was played loudly on the stereo in the living room.. It was awesome. Since we had 9 kids in the family, we simulated the Uncle Dunkle’s let’-share-diseases closeness on the “dance floor” (carpeted living room).
Your brothers were more often using the living room as the stage for KISS, air-performed for thousands with tennis racket guitars and upright vacuum cleaner microphones — our desk lamps with the adjustable necks served as spotlights, and we darned-near caused Dad’s stereo to smoke with the volume levels. Rock on!
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BY the way, WHY are there braille instructions in the bank drive thru????? Are our vision challenged brothers and sisters really using the drive-thru?
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Ha! Don’t worry though. Their seeing eye dogs are the ones driving.
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You’re so right! I forgot that. I still crank the EW &F. In fact, I did a post about how I almost died while listening to them a couple of months ago.
I remember – did you dress up for halloween as KISS, or was that Pat and his friends? What’s so funny is now that Gene Simmons reality show is big sis MK’s favorite show.
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Pat and his friend, Tori Lopino (sp?) were big into that. I remember that summer when I had foot surgery and Kate Navarre came over to visit and Pat and Tori were doing their KISS thing. Too funny. And MK has ME watching it, too. Had to watch the wedding, you know…
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I’m with you, Baby! John can dance and I love that Disco beat. Thanks for reminding me. Scrappy is going to see some of the Hustle on our walk today… 😉
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The only problem is, it’s hard to really go for a walk in those platform shoes, isn’t it?
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I remember being a DJ at Diamond Mike’s, in Houghton, MI while at MTU late 1970s. They had the lighted floor and disco ball and I controlled it all! The music was all about dance and romance! It was serious fun – we discoed down and I had a blast mixing it up.
Ah, the memories…. that long ago chapter of mine, when I was hot and groovy! 🙂
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I didn’t know you did disco up there – I thought the lumberjacks sneered at that kind of music.
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I recently watched a dvd (through Netflix) called “That’s the Way I Like It” which was a nice tribute to Saturday Night Fever set in Singapore, with a somewhat parallel plot. The male lead (inspired to enter a disco contest after seeing a SNF-like film) even had a familiar scene in which he complained about someone hitting his hair during a family squabble at the dinner table.
I had the Bee Gees in my head for some time after watching the film.
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You had the Bee Gees with a SIngapore accent stuck in your head? Interesting,…
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I’m thinking mirror ball dangling from your rear view mirror!
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Great idea! Added to my graduation mortar board tassel, baby shoes and the air freshener already hanging there and I’ll have about a 4″ square section of visibility left.
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Tee hee!
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