Anne McKee

The hot and humid weather has changed just enough to give Meridianites a promise of frost on the pumpkin and a chill in the air; football games are in motion as high school bands play, and girls dress in new fall wardrobe ensembles.

With these thoughts in mind, I recently dug through an old closet to pull out my red poodle skirt and saddle oxfords. Yes, I still have them! Everything is the same, but the size 8 of the skirt. Something has expanded, just a tiny bit. Oh, hush!

I even found Hub’s Meridian High band jacket and his old black tux. The tux was needed when he played with a Benny-Goodman-type-band back in the 1960s. The band was known as The Continentals. You might remember them. For high school instrumentalists to take on the image of swing music during the era of Elvis and The Beatles rampages was unique and downright courageous! But the guys played with all of the gusto of the 40s. For quite a while their gigs crowded their calendars and put a few coins in their pockets, especially in 1960 when the group won the Miss America Talent Contest conducted at Meridian High School for a sold-out presentation. Those were the days!

During the 1960s, dances were held on Friday nights after the Meridian High School football games. Sometimes Hubs played in the band, and sometimes he just went to the dance with me. Then later, we would go to The Davis Grill for veal cutlets with gravy and french fries or for black bottom pie at Weidmann’s.

Strange, that with all of those calories I could still skinny into a size 8!

On one particular evening at Weidmann’s, I had worn my dyed-to-match wool sweater and skirt. I remember it was a beautiful shade of aqua, and I don’t even remember it scratching, not too much anyway. We had ordered and were seated in the midst of a big “after-the-ballgame-crowd” when the waiter tripped and a full pitcher of icy, sweet tea landed in my lap! Not a problem; it actually felt rather nice because the weather was not exactly ready for a wool outfit even though it was a new “must-wear” regardless of the cooperation of the temperatures.

The red poodle skirt was reserved for sock-hops, mainly at Northwest Junior High School or, sometimes, at The Teen Center, located where Meridian Fire Station No. 1 is today. The 45-rpm vinyl records supplied the music. There would be Bobby Darin, The Everly Brothers, The Platters, Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison, Fabian, Brenda Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. At Northwest Junior High, we would dance the night away, slipping and sliding across the shiny gym floor. After the dance, my best girlfriend, who lived near Northwest Junior High, and I would walk the couple of blocks to her house, with no fear or apprehension. The golden harvest moon guided the way as we practiced our version of The Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie, Wake Up!” We were pretty good, we thought, and who cared what anyone else thought?

There were times my girlfriends and I would have a spend-the-night-party after the football games. We would walk all over the neighborhoods of 23rd Avenue and 46th Street into the late hours of the night giggly and free-spirited, then return for peanuts and cokes, just enough, not too much. The music would start again on our little portable players, and the dance would continue — only this time just for girls, dressed in baby doll pj’s as we sung every word and emphasized each note. I can hear it now, “Chantilly lace, and a pretty face, and a ponytail hanging down.”

Today, we are known as the baby boomer generation. I heard recently that today baby boomers might take over the world. Well, I’m ready!

So, I’m thinking it’s a very good thing I kept the red poodle skirt. It’s just that size 8 thingy that might be a problem, but maybe not!

Anne McKee is executive director of the Meridian Railroad Museum and can be found online at annemckeestoryteller.com