“That one!”, I shout pointing at the clock on the wall.
“No,” Jack disagrees. “Let’s use the one in the playroom!”
“But it’s not round!” I point out.
Jack puts his hands on his hips and glares at me. “It’s not attached to the wall, either!”
We argue, again wasting precious seconds of play time. Roxi and Maria are giggling in the corner, Phillip in between them, waiting for us to settle our clock dispute. Georgie (short for Gorgeous) is listening avidly, searching for his chance to jump in and calm things down.
Eventually he appeals to my sensible side. “The one on the wall is probably special and if we break it, we’ll get in trouble.”
This halts all arguments and Jack and I decide the playroom clock is the better clock.
We grab it and bring it back to Roxi’s room.
“Okay, we can start!” I announce, while Jack puts the square clock on the ground in the center of the room.
“Does everyone remember what they are supposed to do?” I ask.
Everyone nods and Roxi and Maria start up their giggling again at the boys. We all take our places around the clock, while Georgie turns on the record player and sets the needle down. Quickly, he moves into his spot.
Bill Haley busts out with “One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rock” and we all start kicking our legs and twitching our hips as we dance around the clock.
Well…it was dark outside so we couldn’t build a fort…
And, with our introduction to American Graffiti and Brian Wilson, doo wap becomes a big part of our lives.