The Clear
Lake Dance Contest
December 1978
Story Written by Rick Archer
Introduction
I hate dance contests.
For starters, they are often judged by
celebrities, people who know less about
dancing than the contestants. Some of the decisions
made by the celebrity judges
drive me crazy. They love to be cute and have people think
they are clever. As a result,
the winner isn't necessarily
the couple who danced the best, but rather the
one that got the biggest laugh.
Another problem
with dance contests is
that the
playing field isn't always level.
Frequently in
the same category you have people who have danced for years up
against people who have been dancing for months.
Another common problem is that the flashiest couple often
doesn't win. The crowd favorite is the couple who tries
the toughest moves. Even though this couple pleases the audience,
they often lose to the couple with the
fewest mistakes. In dance contests, the rules aren't always
understood by the audience. They can't understand why the judges seem to reward the boring couples with
victory over the couples who take chances. Since the
"mistakes" are usually far too subtle for the average observer
to notice, the crowd is often disgusted with decisions that make no
sense to them.
Politics also rear their ugly head. The most popular couple
wins
the close contests. Good looks are important too. Beauty beats skill far too often.
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These are just some of my objections. In general,
all sports where the contestants are "judged" don't sit well
with me. Figure skating, diving, gymnastics
and competitive dancing have
always made me feel uncomfortable because the judging is subjective.
I much prefer sports where you keep
score. The team that puts the ball in the net the most often deserves to
win. These results are easy for my mind to accept.
When it comes to dance contests, the
TV show Dance
Fever in 1978 will forever remain unforgettable. This show used to make my
blood boil. There was a different panel
of celebrity Judges
each week. It seemed like their main objective was say witty things
and look sexy. Most
of the judges seem to know little or nothing about dance. I assume
they didn't know much based on the frequency that their decisions made me want to scream!
A major problem on that show were frequent match ups of what I call 'apples versus oranges'. You might have professionally-trained
jazz dancers from New York competing against
an ethnic
couple from Detroit doing "urban routines". Or you might have an Oktoberfest couple wearing lederhosen dancing a
German Oompah Polka competing against a Disco couple who flawlessly
executed one difficult acrobatic flip after another... only to see the
Oompah dancers win 'because they were so cute'.
Don't laugh. I saw all sorts of absurdities happen on that show.
The worst decision on Dance Fever was the time a comedy
act beat out the finest dancers I had ever seen. A Disco couple
danced the most exquisite routine. It was literally the most
exciting dance performance I had ever seen. I was
enthralled by the beauty and difficulty of their moves. I couldn't wait to see
this couple again in the Finals of this show.
So out comes the next couple. My mouth drops open to see
two fat people who could barely walk, much less dance. But they
were funny, I will admit that. One of their skits had the man
'hypnotize' his dance partner who obediently laid down on the floor.
The man ordered her to be a log. Then, using his magnetic powers, he made like a sorcerer and used his magic fingers to
roll her over one way, then roll her back over the other way. I
laughed. Sure
it was funny, but it wasn't dancing. It didn't dawn on me as
I laughed that the log couple was going to win. I was
flabbergasted at the judges' decision. A couple who would had
been training in dance their entire lives were beaten by comedians.
I nearly did a John McEnroe. Are you people out of your minds? I
have never wanted to put a shoe into my TV like I did that night.
What an outrage! Twenty years later and I am still mad. I
hate dance contests.
On Dance Fever, invariably either the oddest couple or the
biggest underdog always won.
I was continually outraged. Sometimes
the decisions were so preposterous, I couldn't help but wonder if the
show was rigged.
However, when it comes to dance contests that are rigged, no dance show
will ever surpass Dancing with the Stars.
That show is so crooked I cannot watch it.
I never thought I would see a worse decision in the Dance World than
the atrocities on Dance Fever. So can you imagine my
shock when I saw what happened on Dancing with the Stars
in the first season? Oh my gosh, talk about Déjà vu!
In
2005 I was deeply outraged by the developments I watched unfold on
Dancing With
the Stars. In the final show of the first season, a
graceful, talented dancer named John O'Hurley was robbed
of a victory when a klutzy ex-Playboy Centerfold magically
received the first two Tens ever given by the judges to pull off a huge upset.
The woman - Kelly Monaco - had no business receiving scores like that.
Not only did Monaco clearly stumble TWICE during her Double Ten performance, there was nothing special about the rest
of her dance that would justify those kind of scores. Deduct one
point for the stumbles and O'Hurley wins automatically. But no,
let's ignore the stumbles and award the highest score possible...
Meanwhile O'Hurley and his partner performed flawlessly
and gracefully as always. They did nothing wrong to deserve to lose.
The decision to award Monaco the victory was the biggest sham I have
ever seen. The whole thing made me sick in my stomach. The show boasted it had professional judges, but in my
opinion, the only thing professional about them was the money they
accepted for putting in the fix.
The result was so absurd it offended the sensibilities of the entire
nation. Trying to atone for an obviously rigged score, ABC staged a
stupid rematch
contest a couple months later. I didn't watch and I don't care who won. The damage was
done. The credibility
of the show was lost.
Adding insult to injury, two seasons later, football superstar Emmitt
Smith was given the victory over Mario Lopez, a far superior dancer.
To my knowledge, Lopez accepted the loss with as much dignity as
possible under
the circumstances, but his dance partner Karina Smirnoff was quite vocal in
her disgust over the results. I didn't blame her a bit.
I am hardly alone in thinking this third season result was just as
absurd as the first season. Take this article for example.
A
'GREAT' DANCER LOSES TO A 'GOOD' DANCER
By:
Gordon Bishop
America is obsessed by celebrity.
Look at the results of the popular Dancing With The
Stars television show. Anyone who watched the show
during its 10-weeks season recognized that a
little-known actor named Mario Lopez set new winning
records for that annual dance-off.
Even the three judges of the weekly dancing contests
agreed that after four-five weeks into the competition
that “Mario had reached the level of professional as a
dancer.”
That’s about the highest praise you can bestow on
someone in any TV competition.
So who won?
A name and face just about everybody in America and
beyond immediately recognize: Three-time Super Bowl
champion and the National Football League’s all-time
leading rusher and NFL Hall of Fame Dallas Cowboy’s
superstar Emmitt Smith.
I’m not a follower of football and only watch a game if
the New York Giants or New York Jets wind up in the
Super Bowl playoffs. Even I know about the great one,
Emmitt Smith.
Smith is definitely a good dancer, considering his size
and age.
But he’s not a great dancer like Mario, who was spinning
circles around Emmitt during the weekly broadcasts on
ABC-TV.
The three dance judges agreed that “the best dance of
this season’s” contest was Mario’s free-style dance that
copped a perfect score. Mario won the judges’ nickname
“Super Mario” during the entire competition.
So why did Mario lose?
Celebrity!
Football is America’s favorite game, topped off by the
Super Bowl. Emmitt Smith is a football legend. The
overwhelming majority of Americans watch football,
especially the Super Bowl, which usually has the highest
Nielsen (viewers) ratings every year.
I really enjoyed Emmitt. He has a great attitude, a
charming smile, and is a good dancer by anyone’s standards.
But he simply could not execute the incredible, magical
footwork and gymnastics that Mario performed in his
winning finale.
It’s unfortunate that Super Mario lost. He wasn't
just the best dancer of the season, Lopez has to be the most
talented male celebrity this show has seen so far. Period.
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Enough said.
You get the picture.
Dance Contests are
often judged very poorly.
And now for my Story...
Given my bad attitude towards dance
contests, you begin to understand why I avoid them like the plague.
I don't like to watch them and I don't want to enter them.
However, I admit I have actually entered a few dance contests. Four in fact. I
didn't win any of them.
One was a couples
Twist contest in some club
where my partner and I finished second. Big deal.
Another was a dance
contest at the old Wild West on Gessner where Sharon
Crawford and I fell on the floor trying an
ill-fated new acrobatic step. Since we had entered the contest on a lark
at the last moment, we didn't take our defeat too
seriously.
However the other two contests I should have won.
But I didn't.
This is the story of the first defeat, an incident known as
The Clear Lake Disaster.
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This picture was taken in 1982 at the McSwain home. Two of my favorite couples from the Clear
Lake Group are pictured here.
I am on the outside. Tommy McSwain is next to me.
Hazel McSwain is on top wearing blue next to her two daughters.
Bruce Baird is closest to the fireplace. His wife Margaret is in
red right above him.
That's Judy Price in purple and Dick Torchia in the
upper middle.
I am sorry, but I have forgotten the names of the third couple.
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The Clear Lake
Disaster
Let's return yet again to those Disco Days of yesteryear.
1978 was the year Saturday Night Fever
got the whole country dancing to Disco Inferno and the Bee Gees. It
was now June 1979, one year after the infamous Ritz Fiasco in our
previous story.
For the past
five months, I had been
driving down to Clear Lake ever Saturday
afternoon to teach Disco
Dancing to six couples. This was my favorite teaching assignment of the
week. Not only were all six couples warm, friendly people
who were fun to be around,
they were a pleasure to teach.
Each couple concentrated very hard. My
heart swelled with pride as I watched them make steady progress.
This tight-knit group were pretty good out on that dance
floor. I should know because I watched them in action many times.
Normally I work with such large groups that I don't get to focus on
individuals very much. But with this group, I was able to hone in
on their progress. They made me feel good to be their teacher. I loved watching them improve
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Early in 1979, the Clear Lake Recreation Center called me up
and asked me to teach a Disco class down in Clear Lake. I said the
only day I had free was Saturday, but that was good enough for them.
I was greeted by a very large group full of enthusiasm. There were
apparently no other dance teachers in the area, so my class was indeed
huge. There are advantages to being the only game in town.
The class treated me like a rock star and hung on my every word. I had a
lot of fun teaching down there. At the end of the last class I
promised
that I would start another class in a couple months.
While I was standing around accepting thanks and answering questions, several couples led by Dennis and Linda Case came up to me
to ask if I would
consider teaching them as a private group on Saturdays. At first I
hesitated. Clear Lake was a pretty long drive plus I could use
the day off. After all, I taught private lessons all morning and
afternoon at Stevens of Hollywood on Saturdays, so I was usually pretty
pooped by the time the Clear Lake gig rolled around. But they were so generous in their praise I couldn't
help myself. I was very flattered. So I told them of course I
would do the lesson. That's how I came to know these people.
Every Saturday I would drive down to Clear Lake to teach the group.
This group wrapped their Saturdays around my class. First they met
for my class, then whole group would go out to dinner,
and finish the evening by driving to a nearby Disco for some Saturday Night dancing afterwards.
Of course they always invited me to join them.
Usually I would cut out after dinner because I had a date back in
Houston, but occasionally
I would take them up on their offer.
Part of the problem was that I was always solo... it was a little weird
going dancing with six couples. Plus I was younger
than all of them. Two of the couples were in their fifties and
treated me like a son. Others in the group like Tommy and Hazel were closer in age and became my
friends. All of these people were so kind to me. I felt very
welcomed in their presence.
Those were fun days for me.
I worked them hard too!
All that Saturday Night Practice began to pay off. Each couple was
getting very good.
THE BEAR
One Saturday I arrived for my lesson to be
greeted by
an enormous 4 1/2 foot tall teddy bear.
It was so big, for a moment I thought it was a real bear! It seems my
best dancers, Tommy and Hazel McSwain, had won the bear
in a dance contest.
I was quite impressed by that bear!
Very cute. The bear was so big that it
stood up on its hind legs. The bear was almost as tall as
one of the women in the class. We joked that if one of the
ladies got dizzy, the bear could take her place. Ha ha ha.
I wasn't surprised at who won though. Tommy and Hazel were
my best dancers. They were so good, they won a trip to
Cancun a few months later by entering a contest at a nearby
Disco known as the Lighthouse.
The other five couples were just as proud of Tommy and Hazel as they could possibly
be. On the surface, so was I. Of course Tommy
and Hazel deserved their victory. They certainly had my respect. They were great dancers!
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However, unbeknownst to the group, I harbored
deep dark thoughts of envy.
That bear was quite a trophy. I wanted one of my own.
The next week I got to see Bear Number 2.
It seems the same night after Tommy and Hazel had showed me their bear
in the afternoon, later on the six couples made another trip to the same
Disco (for the life of me, I have no idea what the name was.)
To their surprise, the contest was on again. Sure
enough, this time another couple from the group, Bruce and Margaret Baird,
entered and won.
Now the group had two trophy bears to brag
about. Again the group oohed and aahed at the beauty of
the bear and the success of their friends.
Well, let's cut right to the heart of the matter.
I WANTED ONE OF THOSE BEARS FOR
MYSELF.
I knew my couples were good, but I was better. For
crying out loud, I was their teacher! I knew more than they did
and I practiced six times as often. They were amateur dancers, I
was a professional. Thanks to my work with Glen Hunsucker, I
was a seasoned, polished dancer. I knew lots of tricks that were too
difficult or dangerous to teach that could be used to win a contest.
I couldn't think of any
earthly reason why I
couldn't win my own damn bear!
So I politely asked if any of the couples minded if
I entered the following week. Thank goodness they were so nice
about it! I was worried my desire to enter the contest might
backfire. Fortunately, they thought this was a great idea!
One lady spoke up and said, "Of course, Rick, we actually talked about
you entering! We would all love to see you perform."
My
friends were so excited for me! That's all I needed to hear.
The coast was clear. The game was on.
AN INSECURE STATE OF MIND
Driving back to Houston that night,
all I could do was think about winning that bear. I
was obsessed.
I felt kind of guilty for
stooping so low. They told me that any one of the six couples
could win that contest... there was no other real competition in the club!
It was like shooting ducks in a barrel... no challenge. With that
thought in mind, I began to feel ashamed of myself for wanting to win
this thing. What would it prove?
But on the other hand, I wasn't the most secure person in the world,
especially when
it came to my dancing. Painful memories of the
Ritz Fiasco from the previous year still
burned deep in my psyche. A little redemption would go a long way
towards easing those scars.
I had a lot to prove.
Nor was my self-esteem very good either.
I was 29 years old. I was an angry,
bitter young man in those days. To this point, my life had been rough going.
Although I
had been given one very good break in life - I received a wonderful
education - I had endured many hardships as well.
I had been lonely most of my life. I had grown up in a broken home.
As an only child, I actually sort of raised myself.
I never dated in high
school because I felt inferior. I was the poor
kid at a rich kid's school. And since I went to
college at a men's school, I didn't date much there either.
I finally fell in love for the first time in graduate school.
However, thanks to my near-total lack of experience with
women, I had my heart
broken by a two-timer who did a very serious number
on my head. That really hurt.
I had spent the past four years trying to recover from that heartache.
It wasn't very easy getting my confidence back. These were my angry years. I
was mad at all women and terrified of them as well. Given that
bad attitude, it should be no
surprise that during this time I never had a serious girlfriend.
Partially because I was gun shy, definitely because I was bitter, I was
very awkward around women.
Even my remarkable luck with education had ended. In 1974 I suffered the humiliation of being
thrown out of graduate school.
That really hurt. I was crushed. After that disappointment, I
came back to Houston to pick up the pieces. I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do with
the rest of my life. For lack of anything better to do, for the
past four years I had been stuck in the most
depressing job imaginable investigating child abuse.
Talk about a dead end job.
I was a failure in love. I was a failure in my career. Ever
since I had been thrown out of graduate school, I had been drifting through life
trying to find myself.
Then
Saturday Night Fever came along.
For the past year, this Disco Dancing was the best thing
that had ever happened to me. Thanks
to a series of remarkable breaks, I had finally discovered something I
was good at - teaching. Now
for the first time in a long time, I had a purpose. I was
determined to make my mark with the dancing. A year ago I
had embarrassed myself greatly at the ill-fated Ritz
Performance, but now life had offered me
another chance to prove I was a good dancer
after all.
This Clear Lake contest offered a chance at redemption.
I knew I had been a lousy dancer to start
with, but through hard work and determination I had
improved quite a bit.
I could win this dance
contest. I knew it wasn't the Super Bowl, but I had never won
a dance contest and I wanted to
win one. This contest was a good place
to start.
On the other hand, my conscience told me this wasn't a fair fight. It
was a professional stacked against amateurs. Tough. I
told my conscience to shut
up. I wanted to win and get
that bear.
There was another driving motivation as
well. For the first time in five years, I had a
girlfriend. I had been
dating a very pretty girl named Suzanne Morris,
the brunette in the light pink shirt, for the past seven months,
Unfortunately, at this point our relationship was on shaky ground. You can read the
entire miserable story if you wish in
Risky Business
I thought perhaps if Susie and I were to win
this dance contest, it might go a long way towards restoring the
rapidly fading Magic in our relationship.
So I talked Susie into coming down with me to Clear Lake
the following week. She was very skeptical, but
eventually agreed to help. To prepare, we practiced all
week long.
We looked good. I felt confident.
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THE FATEFUL NIGHT
My Ritz disaster was in June 1978. By
coincidence, the Clear Lake contest was June 1979. One year ago I
had suffered the worst humiliation of my life on a dance floor.
Now it was time for some revenge. I was probably taking this event
a little too seriously. Oh, let's tell the truth... a lot too
seriously. I had some real emotion on this event.
Susie
accompanied me on the drive down to Clear Lake on the day of the
contest. She was in a very negative mood. In her mind, this
was stupid. Who cared whether we beat a bunch of people we didn't
even know in a backwoods dance competition?
As Susie
and I walked in the door to start our lesson, we were greeted
by Bear Number 3. Staring eye to eye with the
bear, Susie did a double take. Susie laughed and said, "I
didn't realize the Bear was as big as me!" That was the first
time she had smiled the whole day.
After I got through introducing Susie to the six couples, they gave me
the lowdown. Sure enough, after I had left the previous Saturday, the group had gone dancing
again. Same Disco, same result. This time a third couple,
Dave and Mona, had entered and won!
I teased them that they kept trotting out the same
stupid bear every week, but they swore up and down there were three
bears now. So I quipped that Goldilocks had to be somewhere
nearby. Ha ha ha. Then I said that pretty soon there would
be a fourth bear in the family. Everyone smiled. Even Susie
looked like she was getting on board with the idea.
Eventually we settled down and got to work.
With Susie helping me, our lesson was sharper
than usual.
Part of every lesson involved dance acrobatics. Normally I would
have to figure out a way to explain the woman's part, but Susie already
knew the move so this saved a lot of time. The women could see
what the move looked like ahead of time and be able to copy Susie.
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After the lesson, we joined the six couples at a restaurant for
dinner. Bless their hearts, the six couples were so excited for us!
It was all they could talk about. I could see
they were really looking forward to the contest. They
couldn't wait to see Susie and me dance together!
Susie kept staring at me throughout dinner in regards to their
unabashed enthusiasm. Why were they so excited? As we drove to the Disco
after dinner, Susie said she could not figure
out what the big deal was. She had watched them
dance in class. They weren't even remotely a match for what she
and I could do, so how tough could winning this contest be?
Why were we doing this?
Personally I wished she would be quiet, but I had to admit I agreed with
her. It seemed like a slam dunk to me as well. Her words
forced me to wrestle with my own guilt some more.
Susie may have been convinced this was a
waste of time, but
I was determined to follow this through. I had some demons
to conquer.
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Please forgive my
for my lack of modesty, but
once we entered the dance club, I saw
immediately our dancing was at a
total different level from the people here at
the club. In fact I was
embarrassed at how much better Susie and I were than the other
dancers in the club. Susie noticed the
same thing. She
immediately said she told me so. What was the point?
Clear Lake wasn't exactly a foreign country, but compared to the dancing I saw each
night in the Big City, there was no competition to speak of.
It was readily apparent why three
of my six couples had won. No one else in this crowded club had
much of a clue when it came to
partner dancing. After all, there weren't any
dance studios out here. The only people who
remotely had a shot at us were my own students, but they
said they preferred to sit this one
out and give us an open field.
This contest was a Sure Thing.
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But at the same time, I took note that the club was
crowded. I marveled again at the energy that had been created by
Saturday Night Fever. The movie had changed the
landscape of American Nightlife from coast to coast. Just because
these people weren't great dancers didn't mean they weren't having fun.
This little dance club was packed. Furthermore, I discovered a lot
of these people had come because the Saturday Night dance contest was so
popular.
Susie
and I danced all night long.
When we didn't dance with each other, we danced with our friends
from the Six Couples. It
was Saturday night at the Disco.
Now that I saw what we didn't have any competition, I
didn't see any point keeping my cards to
my chest. This event clearly did not call for any gamesmanship whatsoever.
It was in the bag. Why not dance with my beautiful girlfriend and have
some fun? Why not
dance with the six ladies in my group and give them a chance to show
off? Why not let their husbands get to be proud of how great their
wives looked? So I danced and I danced and I danced some more.
Meanwhile, to her complete surprise, Susie was having a good time. Every one
of the men in our group asked her to dance. Susie quickly
established herself as the best female dancer in the club. She was
clearly the star of the night and began to enjoy her sudden popularity.
This was kind of fun. It was therapeutic as well.
You see, Susie had been wrestling with demons
of her own. Susie was very self-conscious about her
dancing. For the world to see, Susie was a beautiful woman and a good dancer.
But in her private thoughts, Susie felt insecure because
back in Houston there were several women who were clearly better dancers than
she. Susie resented always being in back of the line.
However down here at this Clear Lake dance club, Susie had become
the
Dance Diva. It was good for her ego.
In addition to our six couples, the other patrons had been
admiring her dancing all night long. Wherever she went,
there were people
smiling at her. Normally a reserved woman, Susie responded to the affection.
She had been a grouch earlier in the evening, but now she was enjoying herself thoroughly. I had never seen
her laugh like this before. This evening was exactly the
tonic I had hoped for.
Together we kept the whole place
entertained. We both loved the attention.
Now for a confession. I had a huge crush on Susie.
It hurt me that our relationship was so up and down. The
problem was that Susie wasn't quite sold on me. Although
we hadn't gotten to the stage of discussing marriage, I could
tell she was definitely sizing me up. For example, she had taken
me up to Austin to meet her parents.
The thorny subject was my job as a dance teacher. In
the seven months we had been dating, Susie had
made it clear she had serious reservations about my job
as a dance teacher.
This was not an appropriate long-term profession.
Why was I wasting my education on something so frivolous? Susie let it be known she had more of a doctor or lawyer in mind.
She even sent away for graduate school brochures for me to
look at.
I had no intention to give up the dancing, at least not
for the moment. Tonight was important because
I wanted Susie to see how much fun and satisfying my unusual lifestyle
could really be. I was thrilled she was having such a good time.
I hoped this night could help me break through the
impasse in our relationship over dancing.
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During the evening our victory seemed to have become a forgone conclusion
even to people outside our group. People from all over the club came up to
our table to ask if Susie
and I were going to
enter the big contest. When we said yes, they
got excited. They told us they loved watching us out
on the floor and they wanted to see us perform.
I was about as relaxed as humanly possible.
I felt absolutely no pressure. My downfall at the
Ritz had been caused by weak dance skills. That was certainly no
longer a problem. Since my Ritz days, I had
found a dance teacher to teach me how
to partner dance. I had received the professional dance
training I had lacked at the Ritz performance.
Thanks to Glen, my teacher, I knew a wide assortment of complicated patterns and
could lead them like the back of my hand.
Always a worrier, I
could not even conceive of the slightest threat to my eventual victory. Even the lighting problems
of the Ritz
couldn't stop me this time. You could blind-fold me and I would
still win.
BRING IT ON
As the night wore on, I was starting to
get tired.
Gee whiz.
It
was well past midnight. I wished they
would start the contest
and get it over with. We had been there since 10 pm.
My Six
Couples said the contest had started at 11 pm in the past.
But with the energy Susie and I had created along with our
friends, tonight's floor was still crowded and
lots of drinks were being sold. I suppose the management saw no reason to hurry.
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Finally the Big
Contest was announced. There would be
2 rounds. The Preliminaries had
all the contestants dancing at once. While you danced, someone
would tap you to let you know you were in the
Finals. In the Finals, each of the
three couples would
dance solo as more of a 'showcase'.
As the Preliminary Round began, I was
surprised at how crowded it was on the floor. I had
expected people would be intimidated about entering, but exactly
the opposite had occurred. Our night of dancing actually
had stirred every one up. There was no shame losing to us,
so why not get out there and fight it out for second place?
As we danced. Susie and I had our 6 couples cheering for us plus most of the audience. We
were "tapped" about 10 seconds into the song. I turned it on. I spun Susie this way
and spun her that way. At this point I could
lead and Susie looked wonderful. With
her long hair and
flowing Disco dress, all eyes were on her as one spin after another built up the
momentum. I could not have been happier.
People were clapping and shouting encouragement. This was
fun!
Fun, that is, until disaster struck...
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I led Susie into a
pattern
I
called the Pistachio Step.
This was my best move. Naming it after my favorite dance club,
this was a lightning-quick pattern.
Just as I raised my right arm
to bring it over my head, a man dancing behind
me lost control of his partner. The woman clobbered me in my
back.
Knocked off balance, I lurched forward towards Susie. My right elbow jammed sharply into
Susie's bottom lip,
crushing it into her front teeth. Her teeth bit deep into her lip.
I didn't just bump her. My elbow hit her hard. It had to
hurt terribly.
The blow left a very nasty cut.
Blood was spurting!
Suddenly the front of her mouth was covered with
blood. Susie covered her mouth with her hands to keep the blood from falling
on the dance floor. People knew something was wrong, but they
weren't sure what had happened. When they saw the blood every
person in the room gasped!
I wasted no time. I immediately rushed
Susie off the floor and made a beeline for the Ladies
Room. Yes,
I went in with her. We washed her mouth but we couldn't stop the
bleeding. The only way to stop the bleeding was to
keep a wet paper towel pressed
firmly against the cut.
That is when I blurted out one of the stupidest
things I have ever said. I knew better, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to win that bear.
"Susie,
will you be able to dance in the Finals?"
At first Susie just glared at me in amazement.
Then she said, "Rick, are you out of your
F____G mind? Do you have eyes? I'm
bleeding! What do you want me to do, hold a towel to my mouth
while we dance? Wouldn't that be just great? You and your
stupid G__D__ dance contest!"
My shoulders sagged as the reality of the moment set
in. Nothing like a big fat lip oozing blood to capture the glamour
of Disco Dancing.
At this point two of the ladies
from the Six Couples came in the room
to relieve me of duty.
I left and went back to
slump down in despair at the table.
About ten minutes later just as the
Finals began, Susie came out of the ladies room with a fresh paper towel pressed
to her lip. She asked me to take her home, so we left
on the spot.
Fortunately Susie didn't need stitches.
But she wasn't in a talking mood, that's for
sure. Her drop dead look precluded any conversation.
The embarrassment was very tough for her to handle.
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Susie's silence meant I had plenty of time
to reflect on the long drive home. I had the strange feeling
that in life some things just aren't meant to be.
I could not get that thought out of my
head. I hadn't felt good about entering this contest in
the first place. Maybe I should have listened more to my conscience.
I did like that
bear.
But you know the real truth. This passion was
stoked by my desire to impress Susie. I had gambled this
evening might make a difference in our crumbling relationship.
For a moment, my gamble almost paid off. Then fate decided
to step in. So much for my gamble.
By the time we made it back to Houston, I was in a very
dark mood. I had a foreboding that unfortunately came
true. When we got to her door, Susie said she preferred to
be alone. I didn't argue.
Not
surprisingly, we never recovered from this blow. We broke up a few
weeks later. I never saw her again or heard anything about
her.
Que Cera, Cera.
What will be, will be.
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