Ahhh young love; most of us can remember our first crush, the butterflies when seeing them, the giggling with our friends  and the scraps of paper passed back and forth with little love messages on them…..and then the first kiss.

When I was about a young teen, I remember going to the local youth club with my older brother and younger sister. There used to be a disco with a DJ (who became a bit of a celebrity in the county before later before falling from grace) once a week which we used to love.

I remember on one occasion, some of my brothers’ friends using their catapults with creme eggs as missiles to shoot out the lights in the ceiling (God knows why, but you don’t question this kind of behaviour as a kid as you think it is funny)! Once the lights were down (literally) the dancing could begin!

The era was the late 1970s. The music was extremely varied and many of the sings had their own dances associated with them. Now I have always had 2 left feet, but everyone used to get up on the dance floor so of course I joined in….

Who could resist the clomping about to Status Quo? There were two rows of people on opposite sides facing each other, and as far as I can remember, you would lean forward lifting the back leg then lean back lifting the front leg then somehow, with a clomp and a twirl, you had swapped places with the person opposite you (assuming you had got the moves right and had not bashed into each other)!

Does anyone remember the dance that was done to Mud’s Tiger feet, and a few other songs as well? You know the one, hands on hips elbows out, then lean in twice with the left elbow, lean back twice, then forward with the right elbow, and so on. This was taken so seriously. My God, if you dared walk past someone at the wrong moment you were in danger of getting your eye blacked with a bony elbow!

My favourite was Boney M’s  ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’. This involved a bit of fancy footwork, a twirl and a clap! Now my coordination is pretty rubbish but I loved having a go at this one, especially if I managed to get through the record without messing up my moves!

Anyway,  back to the first crush. At the end of the evening the lights the DJ would always put a couple of slow numbers on so that gave boys the opportunity to ask a girl to dance with them (NEVER the other way around, we were ladies after all)! The girls would all be standing about nonchalantly chatting whilst desperately hoping they would get approached. I had my eye on a boy with the nickname of ‘ Bruiser’! (God knows why, he was pretty short and skinny, maybe he was the one that bruised easily rather than bruised others)!

Well one night, my luck was finally in and I got asked to dance by the boy of my dreams, I was so thrilled as we clumsily shuffled about to ‘Emotion’ by Samantha Sang. it was the best disco ever!

Just before the slow dances finished he asked me if I would like to go outside as there was a park right next to the hall. I grabbed his hand and off we went, Off course it was pretty dark by now. and I had not seen a piece of black fencing on the ground, you guessed it, I went flat on my face (well knee actually)! He helped me up, and I ignored the pain as I hobbled over to the swings with him, blood trickling down my leg.

That was the night I had my first kiss…. my knee was throbbing, bloody and muddy, and the kiss was rather wet and slobbery!

I was in heaven!