Decades Dance

I wish I'd taken my camera with me to the youth dance last Saturday. It was hilarious to walk into the cultural hall and see it decorated with twisted crepe paper streamers and 45 records (made of construction paper) hanging on the walls. Talk about a time warp! We'd decorated the gym the same way for a "sock hop" when I was a teenager ... only the 45s were real ones then.

It was fun to see the youth warp through time in decades. And even more fun to see them trying out some of the dances for each decade. I think my three favorites were the limbo, Thriller and Macarena.

M decided to do a little write up for each decade at the dance, which the DJ used throughout the night. Here is his work:

Tonight we’re going to go back in time and live in the decades before us for only a few hours. Let’s go back and start with the 1950’s. It’s the years of the Red Scare, where Communism was under fire in America. This is the age where ‘under God’ was added to our Pledge to those great 48 states. This is a time where people were very conservative, and the rebels of the era wore blue jeans. Poodle skirts, ponytails, slacks, and flat tops were the style of the era. It was the decade that gave birth to rock and roll, with people like Elvis, Buddy Holley and Big Bopper, and to television, with shows like I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, and Lassie. Welcome to the 1950’s.

The 50’s are over. Now we enter into a new decade. This decade is one of change: the biggest one being the amendment of Civil Rights, making all people equal. This decade America won the Space Race; we put the first Americans in space, in orbit, and on the moon. People started wearing bell bottoms, love beads, mini skirts, go-go boots, and afros. They also attended things like Woodstock and listened to artists like Jimi Hendrix. TV evolved into a whole new animal, giving us programs like The Flintstones, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Twilight Zone. Say hello to the 1960’s, where we took one giant leap for mankind.


The sixties are gone my friends. But even so, the style of the era held true: bell bottoms and love beads. The nation was thrust into a physical war against Communism in Vietnam. The nation was torn apart by the draft and as demonstrators across the nation protested for the end of the Vietnam War. This decade brought us Richard Nixon, and we know what happened to him. Computers started to evolve with the newest advancement: the floppy disc. Music and TV also evolved. New artists such as Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and The Who arrived on the scene. TV yielded her great classics: Star Wars, The Godfather, and Grease. New shows were born in this era too, like Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street. This is the 1970’s.

We’re ending the end of our travel through time as we come out of the 70’s. This last decade is one of a new age. This era gives birth to treats we know and love: Sweetarts, Skittles, Nerds, Runts, and Hubba Bubba Chewing Gum, and to corporations that are a staple in American culture: McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Nike. Cable TV hit the scene and with it came Music Television. MTV gave birth to a new age of music, one with rap, pop, and hip hop from artists like Prince and Michael Jackson. With that music came all new dances like break and slam dancing. ET phoned home, we went Back to the Future, and had a new form of detention called the Breakfast Club. The popular things to watch on TV were situation comedies, or sitcoms, and the news. Welcome to our final decade, the 1980’s.