Dance to Remember or Forget

While I was dancing on the Big Whisky Puyallup dance floor last weekend, I was reminded of a question I was asked on a dance floor by a bro over 20 years ago:

Hey Los, do you Dance to Remember or Forget?

Yes. Yes, you read that right – Hotel California lyrics used as a question. Considering the bro at the time was a big-time Eagles fan (maybe still is?), I didn’t find it surprising.

Before I answer the question for everyone, I’m offering up this explanation first. The third tenet of my mother’s dating advice was: learn how to dance (note: please see previous entry – Pick Up Artist Do’s and Don’ts)

Back in the day it wasn’t easy whatsoever, especially for a middle-class, half-Filipino, like me. You see, I was hell bent in transforming myself into the most popular guy at middle school that can dance with no comparison. There was no such thing as YouTube tutorial videos or online anything – it was simply old school.

First step was to pick out the freshest threads possible within the budget of the family bank account. My mom was accustomed to picking out my clothes for me without protest. The following happened at Sears on the first day of shopping.

She presented me the same type of jeans she always does: Toughskin Jeans. If you’re not familiar with them, here’s the description from Wikipedia. Toughskins are a line of clothing sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. which were primarily marketed for their durability. When launched, the line only consisted of children’s jeans which were sold with the guarantee that children would grow out of them before the pants wore out. Toughskins had reinforced knees for longer wear; came in slim and regular sizes; and were a blend of Dacron Type 59 polyester, DuPont 420 nylon, and cotton.

For whatever reason that I’m still at a loss to explain, I went ballistic! I tossed the pair on the sales floor, stomped on them, all the while crying. Then I cleared off a shelf of neatly folded jeans onto the tile floor. My mom was mortified. She was at a complete loss as what to do. Her oldest child is known to be calm, cool and collected, and now he’s acting like a crazed monkey.

Obviously, she calmed me down enough to figure out what the issue was, and that it was I am picking out my clothes from now on. She was relieved as she didn’t like doing it anyway. Then I shared with her that I usually was beaten up on a daily basis at elementary school for wearing Toughskin Jeans. What can I say, the 80’s were brutal.

Second step was a new haircut that didn’t involve a bowl. Based on my reaction for clothing shopping experience, she started with the question where and how would I like to have my haircut. I had an answer, and calmly explained it to her. This definitely smoother than the first step.

The final step was to learn how to dance in these new clothes and haircut. I needed a visual resource, which at the time was only television. One TV show that I knew of that had plenty of dancing in it was, Yo! MTV Raps. The hosts were Doctor Dre (not to be confused with N.W.A’s Dr. Dre), and Ed Lover during the weekdays and Fab 5 Freddy on the weekends. I watched the dancers in the background, and mimic them. In addition, I would continue to attend those community dances at the local church through the summer to study other dancers as well. And as the last tenet of my mom’s dating advice, I continue to study other dancers to incorporate their moves with mine, even today.

That being said, I am now ready to answer the question. I dance to remember good times, I dance to forget bad memories, and frankly, I just like to dance.

So, Seattle, do you dance to remember or forget? Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time, be good like you should, and if you can’t be good, be good at what you do.

Mic drop. bOoM

‘los