Ahh...Bridges by Flora Purim. My first slow dance.
The Maryknoll grade school batch '78 hosted a year end party at Trixie Castro's house on Katipunan road right across the Maryknoll campus that summer. I don't recall whether it was an exclusive Ateneo-Maryknoll soiree or if the boys from "the other school" in Greenhills were invited. Regardless, it was a soiree I really looked forward to attending.
In grade 6, my good friend, Edmund Zialcita and I planned a soiree with Assumption grade school which didn't turn out as we had planned. While girls showed up, I believe we just ended up watching Star Wars despite the plans for an all
out dance party in the pelota court at his house in Greenhils. But one year is all it took to change priorities. By grade 7, girls were a top priority. In a predominantly segregated school society in grade school and in high school, interaction with the opposite sex was limited to your family gatherings with your cousins and the much anticipated soirees. There was this expectation that one must be socially ready for the many gatherings in high school by the time you set foot as a freshman.
out dance party in the pelota court at his house in Greenhils. But one year is all it took to change priorities. By grade 7, girls were a top priority. In a predominantly segregated school society in grade school and in high school, interaction with the opposite sex was limited to your family gatherings with your cousins and the much anticipated soirees. There was this expectation that one must be socially ready for the many gatherings in high school by the time you set foot as a freshman.
So Trixie's party was a big deal. The goal is to show up at the party like we have done this before and not end up looking like an idiot in your big brother's silk shirt and paco rabanne aroma. The girls look forward to the dancing, but I believe they were just as nervous as the boys about exposing one's dancing skills in front of the whole group. But the boys had one mission in mind - who to dance with for that one slow dance allowed at the end of the party. You don't want to be the loser who failed to ask a girl for a slow dance. All night, the boys scoped the room , grading each girl based on the probability that she will accept your request for a slow dance. With "secret" signals and agreement among the boys set for whom to ask, we prepped ourselves for our "speech" for the final dance, knowing very well that it's going to be uncomfortable to be so close to a girl for the very first time.
I don't know how I ended up controlling the turntable at the party, but I did. And I selected the song with the longest playing time among the records available - Bridges by Flora Purim - A classic Brazillian song just perfectly sophisticated for the "mature" group around the room. I warned all the other guys that I was going to ask Trixie for the final dance. We ranked Trixie pretty high because she was the hostess of the party, she was cute and very friendly. But most of all, Trixie, at grade 7, was more "developed" in the upper torso area than most of the girls. Hey, boys just think that way.
The bait was set, and to my delight, Trixie agreed to dance with me to Bridges. As the boys looked at each other to see who could go the "lowest" with our hands, I placed my clasped hand about midway her back with the hopes on inching lower as the song progressed. I made it about to "slightly" below her waistline before surrendering to the fact that what I was hoping to happen was not exactly going to happen in the middle of Trixie's living room. It was every boy's fantasy and it remained that way.
As I left Trixie's house that fateful evening, I remember thinking to myself that a new chapter in my life had just begun; bridging the innocence of childhood to the discovery years of my teens.
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