AT ONE TIME I WAS A REALLY GOOD DANCER

Ellie & I dancing at our wedding reception on September 7th, 1974.



In my high school years I was an extremely shy person
I found it hard to compete with those sarcastic jocks
That seemed to like nothing more than to embarrass us

Us being the regular guys who didn't feel those needs
The needs to slam guys like us into the ground for fun
Trying to impress the popular girls or some cheerleader

They thought because we didn't act like a neanderthal
That we could not say a word at all to any of the girls
They were like cavemen laying claim to any girl in sight

If you crossed their perceived territory God help you
They didn't think any girl needed a guy with manners
Who respected the fact that she was not to be mauled

How or why would they ever think of talking to one of us
We weren't muscle bound thugs who could crush a pop can
No we couldn't do that trick of slamming it into your head

But we did have many things that a young lady would like
We were smart and articulate and knew how to treat a lady
And then too some of us were damn good dancers in school

Dancing helped me get over my shyness and I was a gentleman
The jocks would make fun of us if we opened doors for the girls
It seemed there was nothing in those heads except for muscles

After entering the Air Force I had almost 8 months of training
And at the end of the week we would go to the USO dance in town
Several of us who were damn good dancers were getting popular

They would hold this dance contest at the USO club in Rantoul
So each weekend we would go and compete for some nice prizes
When they offered dinner for two prizes everyone wanted to win

I was still a really good dancer when I got out of the Air Force
And one of the things that attracted my wife to me was my dancing
Now years later my legs don't work so well even for a slow dance

My time in Vietnam has created many health problems in my life now
And though I am most grateful for having survived that time there
I think one of the things I miss most from my youth is the dancing

To have been so in tune with your partner and to achieve perfection
It was a passion I know now that I'll never again have in my lifetime
To see me now you'd never guess I use to be a damn good dancer once



© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.



Time and medical problems have taken a toll on this old man's body
and even though I still feel in my mind like I'm in my mid twenties
my damaged old body seems to disagree with me and says not in this
lifetime old man. I have been blessed more than any man should have
a right to have been blessed and if I could possibly live life over
again, I wouldn't change a thing at all in my life. They say there
is a reason for everything that happens in our lives even when we
might not understand what that reason was. But I know what it is I
have now and even if the road to get to this point was not always
nice and at times it may have been extremely rough, I'm happy with
who I am and where I have ended up. Most of all I have been blessed
with the beautiful woman that God led me to and who has always been
by my side throughout the good times and the bad times too and is as
perfect as perfection can be. There is no way a man could ever have
hoped to have found such a beautiful woman who was so loving. She's
the angel God sent to earth for me. We married September 7th, 1974
and we will celebrate our 43rd anniversary this September 7th, 2017.
There is no way that I could ever possibly thank God enough for his
guiding me to this most beautiful woman he had led me to and for his
blessing us with two very talented and very beautiful children and
for our very beautiful grandkids who we adore and spoil always.



Back on July 23, 2016 my wife and I went to my own 50th High School
reunion, it was the first time that I had seen many of my own former
classmates and though it was very hard for me because of my own medical
issues, I did manage to get in three very slow dances with my wife there
something that I have greatly missed being able to do as a result of all
of the nerve and muscle damage I have suffered from which was caused by
my own heavy exposure to the dioxins that were mixed into the defoliant
chemicals that were heavily sprayed all around our very small and remote
Vietnamese air base in South Vietnam during the war to kill off all those
tall and dense jungle plants and grasses that the enemy used for cover as
they sneaked up close enough for them to shell our base with mortars and
rockets and these spray missions eliminated their hiding places and the
ground cover they used before attacking us. Now because of my own heavy
exposures to those defoliants that were sprayed, I am now slowly being
crippled from nerve and muscle damages over the last 40 years.

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