i'll never forget wearing braces...of course, when i wore them they did not have these pretty multi-colored brackets...just the plain old silver kind - you know - the ones that caused kids to call you "brace face". "tinsel teeth' or "metal mouth"...adolescence is SO much fun!
my Navy father had been relocated to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania - a garden spot (NOT!) and i began 8th grade at Good Hope Intermediate School - it sounds Roman Catholic but was not and it was my first foray into public schools. i was desperate to make a good impression. yes, we lived on the Navy Base and there was a 'teen club' on Friday nights. now - in addition to the lovely braces, i had to wear 'head gear' 12 hours a day....ugh! so i usually put it on around 7pm each night after dinner in order to get the 12 hours in...i was very dutiful. well...not quite VERY dutiful, for on Friday nights i would leave the house wearing the dreaded headgear (take it off and stuff it in my bag as soon as i was out of sight of the house) and walk to the teen club for jukebox music, popcorn (which i couldn't eat because of the braces) and endless hours of staring but not talking to and making sure that i was not getting noticed that i was staring at BOYS! yes - my mom called me "boy crazy" and i was indeed.
i wanted a 'boyfriend' and his name was Dan Johnson and he was captain of the 8th grade football team. i loved him...but i loved my English teacher even more - his name was Dennis Shicitano...and he was really dreamy......
at the first school dance of the Fall i waited all night to dance with Dan Johnson - he wasn't quite my boyfriend yet...and my mother had always told me to dance with any boy that asked...the rationale was - the cute boys are shy and if they see you dancing with the ugly, bold boys then they will feel brave enough to ask you...this really didn't make any sense to me, but i was dutiful (sort of)...so i followed her advice.
finally - Dan asked me to dance - it was the last dance of the evening and a slow one...i was in heaven. Dan wore a green mohair sweater that his mother had probably knitted for him and as we danced (public hugging my dad called it!) the mohair made my nose itch and i got congested...i have always been an allergic type of person...so in order to breathe (my nose was totally stuffed up) i had to breathe through my mouth...well..when the song ended i began to move away from Dan...my head had been resting on his shoulder as we 'public hugged' and i found i was stuck...yup...my mouth was stuck to his shoulder. my braces had become caught in the loosely woven yarn of his moss green v-necked mohair sweater. i couldn't lift my head or speak to explain what was wrong...eventually all the lights got turned on in the school gymnasium and the woman gym teacher and my lovely English teacher came over to us - a couple stranded on the dance floor - to see what was wrong. both the adults tried to get the yarns out of my braces but finally Dan Johnson had to take off his sweater. the moss green mohair sweater hung from my braces while the English teacher fetched scissors and cut it from my metal grasp...can you imagine the embarrassment?? i can still feel the heat of my flushed and bright red cheeks and the sting of tears in my eyes as i recall this...of course i can also laugh at the hilarity now...though certainly not at the time!!!!
i have no idea what Dan Johnson told his mother about his ruined sweater. i do remember that i wore a brown a-line skirt that was very flattering.
my dad picked me up from the school dance at 10pm and i didn't smile all the way home because i didn't want to explain the fuzzy moss green threads hanging from my mouth...
