Musis Respublica Floret
Happy Days - The Sixties - Dancing with Fifi
Fifi's Body Armour
Some months before the school dance rehearsals would be held in the Grubby after 3.30pm. The tables which each weighed about the same as a tank were moved out of the way to create a dance space. There were three types of partners, your mates, Fifi and other female staff or girls from Gillespies who arrived at the front gate and were escorted up the playground to the Grubby by Prefects to make sure they were not molested by any hopeful 3rd and 4th years. If you knew anyone at Gillespies you tried to persuade them to attend otherwise it was the desperate, the girth challenged and those who had made a bad hair day a 365/year fact.
The normal procedure was that you would dance in pairs and if Fifi did not think you were doing it properly she would intervene and take over. She would command that you held her closer as the normal reaction was to grip her delicately with your fingertips. This would bring you into contact with her clothing which appeared to be covering some sort sheet steel undergarment of the sort perused by the 1st year in the various female clothing shop windows in Leith Street and it would also endanger your health from passive smoke intake as when not teaching the ladies' staff room was filled to the floor with a thick smoke. Various country dances were also taught which seemed to consist of tramping about as if trying to stamp out a fire or dancing round in circles holding hands like a bunch of drunk druids.
The actual dance itself was a relief, held in the primary school hall with its pristine floor, all the girls had to wear plastic caps, issued at the door, on their stillettos. The dance was supervised by various members of staff, some there to ogle the young girls (or boys), some smelling of drink and being almost friendly. The most dangerous moment was when a member of staff lumbered over and asked to dance with your girlfriend. Usually after the dance your girlfriend would make some disparaging remark about said member of staff which suggested that the younger female generation was not enamoured with the older charms.
In return there were invites to similar functions at the girl's schools. The staff there that attended were all female, single and old with a personality that made Rosa Klebb look friendly. Get too close and a tweed clad missile would head in your direction and suggest to the girl concerned that being a lady meant not getting that close. I would really like to meet the far thinking educationist who thought that placing teenagers in single sex schools were a good idea.
NEXT PAGE -->The Sixties Through Rose Tinted Spectacles
- made Rosa Klebb look friendly