Back in 1989, a friend took me to a night club called Studebaker’s, where there was loud music, swirling disco lights, and wandering eyes searching for the perfect date. I didn’t like it there.
Two years later, in an English class, I wrote a story about that experience. I thought I had lost what I had written, but I just found it in an old box. Here it is (take it with a grain of salt)!
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Disco Disaster
Sweaty bodies jumped, wiggled, and hopped in excited frenzy on the crowded dance floor at Studebaker’s disco. Like oily sardines trying to escape from a tin can, they writhed in rhythm to the pounding beat. This peculiar dancing was either a new form of erotic aerobics or a procedure for the ritualistic bonding of desperate middle-aged singles. I wasn’t sure.
Hundreds of eyes searched hungrily around the room for the right victim; the atmosphere was charged with perverse anticipation. My heart sank when I realized that the overweight man at the adjacent table was staring at me, cigarette dangling precariously from his lips. His thinning black hair was plastered to his head; his mustache neatly trimmed. A few curling hairs were strategically pulled out of his open shirt, a testimonial to his hidden masculinity. He winked; I frowned.
Encouraged by my negative response, he decided to take further action. He stood up. The length and width of his entire body loomed before me, inviting inspection. It was worse than I imagined. Like an overblown basketball his stomach hung, concealing his belt and the upper portion of his voluminous black and white striped jeans.
“I’m sitting all alone,” he whined in a high-pitched complaining voice. He coughed several times, adjusted the ostentatious gold bracelet on his left wrist, and continued—
“My name is Eugene. I’m an Aquarius. That’s a water sign. I am fun-loving, creative, and spontaneous.”
The size and condition of his body verified the truth of his last statement. I imagined him waddling into his kitchen late at night, spontaneously consuming the creative contents of his well-stocked refrigerator.
Suddenly, someone bumped into him from behind. He lurched forward. I cringed in horror as Eugene’s shoulders touched mine. His white wine splashed onto my dress, trickling into my purse.
Eugene hadn’t planned on this, but he was prepared to use the incident to his advantage, creative as he was. “I am so sorry, ” he apologized. “I think it would be a good idea if we went up to my house. It isn’t far from here. You could throw your dress into the wash, and we could relax in my kidney-shaped spa for a while. It won’t be so loud there. We could talk.”
He raised one eyebrow and gestured towards the door with a sweep of his hand.
===========================
Oh No! The last page of my story is missing! I know that (in my original story) she told him to go away as kindly as she could, but I can’t remember the exact words that I used.
Oh well. This could be one of those stories with several alternate endings. I’ll have to think about it!
Before I Forget 
Oh my God, is Studebakers in SLC. If so, I’ve been there.
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I was in Hawaii and I seriously doubt if it is the same now.
1989 was…27 years ago!! (My age is showing)
It’s a totally different experience now, I’m sure.
I don’t even know if there is such a thing as “Disco Dancing” anymore.
Back then, I nicknamed the place “Studmakers.”
Some people liked going here, but it wasn’t for me.
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See, when I was there it was the 1980s, in Salt Lake City. It was a meat market, no doubt.
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It must have been a chain restaurant/bar. The one I went to was located in downtown Honolulu. I don’t know if it is still there or not.
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Even in SLC there were better places to go dancing and drinking.
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Aquarius is not a water sign…
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Well…he thought it was.
The thought of water went well with the wine, I guess.
If he had been told Aquarius is an air sign, he might have blown away (or something).
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Aquarius is The Water Bearer. Maybe that’s where he got it.
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You are absolutely correct, Anonymous!
Aquarius is the water bearer.
But, who knows what he was thinking.
He did say that he had a kidney-shaped spa, which would hold water also. 🙂
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How this story lives on is fascinating. One day John Travolta will comment on it…
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Suddenly, in the past 2 days, I have over 170 hits on this story that I posted 4 years ago (and they are all coming from Facebook).
I am trying to figure out why.
Maybe people are so tired of the COVID-19 isolation, shelter-in place lockdown, they like reading a story about a lot of people jammed together in a crowded room (circa 1989)?
The first lines are:
“Sweaty bodies jumped, wiggled, and hopped in excited frenzy on the crowded dance floor at Studebaker’s disco. Like oily sardines trying to escape from a tin can, they writhed in rhythm to the pounding beat.”
Nothing but a memory in this time of ‘social distancing’….Everyone here has been ordered to stay 6 feet apart!!
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The world will never be the same anymore… When the Moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars…
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I think you are right–the world will never be the same.
A lot of us have been terrorized by the 24/7 news for the past month and a half (or more).
The news keeps focusing on how many people are sick with COVID-19 and how many people are dying–and it rarely mentions the amount of people who have completely recovered without experiencing any severe symptoms.
Sigh. As a result of the constant waves of negativity, right now everyone is frightened and suspicious of everything and everyone.
If people are eventually ‘allowed’ to go to a Night Club again, they will probably want to dance 6 feet away from each other (or farther).
So–I am sending you a long distance ( HUG ) Pierre, and let’s pray some of this fear eventually goes away.
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Thanks for the HUG… I needed that. I can’t hug my grandchildren anymore. Please stay safe.
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Quite comical. I loved the description of the John Travolta look alike.
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John Travolta was a little better looking….😇
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Don’t ask me why, but I love disco music. Used it in the 70s in my English as a second language class. The students were signing along.
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It was very fun, upbeat music.
Got people up and dancing.
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1989? Was disco music “passé de mode” by 1989?
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In 1989 (in some places), Disco was still alive and well.
The big ball of light spinning above and people dancing below.
Rather hypnotic, it was.
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Get up and boogie… the song went…
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And that is exactly what the people did! 🙂
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Brings back sweet memories…
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That sounds like a scene from a Molly Ringwald movie! I can just imagine it… 🙂
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Haha! I definitely wasn’t the right personality for that kind of thing.
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That sounds about how I would respond to the situation. But, I might be a little more awkward about it. Hahaha
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I like that photo of you from long ago. You describe the disco scene so well. I started ballroom dance when I was 16 years old. Disco started to become popular a year or two after I had gotten to a really high level of dance, but I was well aware of the music before then. I had started playing in bands when I was 15, and I hated disco for various reasons, but in my dance world at the time I had to learn all the disco dances and even compete in disco competitions. Today I appreciate Disco a lot more then back then, and I preserve the vintage versions of the disco dances I learned in the 1970’s. But one of the many reasons I didn’t become a professional dancer back then is because I couldn’t deal with the disco, bar and dance hall environment you described so well. No matter how much you like the dance and the music, the bars and disco type places are full of the worst type of personalities trying to pick up on each other. Hungry eyes in search of victims is not what I consider fun.
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I love music. I have been singing with different musical groups and on my own…for years.
I wish I had taken dance…because, most of the time, I am not sure of where my feet are exactly.
Like you, I was never interested in the hungry eyes or the feeling of desperation–watching people trying to pick up others after they had one too many drinks. Just like you, that did not and does not appeal to me at all. I lived in Hawaii at the time. I would have much rather gone down to the ocean, sat on a sea wall or some rocks, and listened to the melodic soundof the waves breathing in and out into the sand……
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Even though you might think you can’t dance, a good leader can make you to look good dancing without you really knowing how to dance. I can’t sing worth beans, and can’t be lead to sound good. I tried taking voice lessons a long, long time ago. I think the poor teacher must have wondered what sins she or her forefathers had committed for her to end up with a student like me. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I was hopeless when it came to singing.
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Anyone who can speak can sing. just hold the speaking sound a little longer…and there it is!
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That’s like me saying anyone who can walk can dance. That means there are a lot of people who don’t know how to walk. My cats and birds tolerate my singing, but just barely. It’s funny that when I teach the bird songs, he actually sings them in tune.
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That’s great!!
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Great story. Aquarius is actually an air sign, so this guy really was fully clueless. I never liked disco music and had never listened to it until I was living on the Navajo reservation in 1981, and the 3rd graders chose it as their graduation theme. Since the school only went to 3rd grade and some kids only went that far in school, they had graduations each year.
The daughter of one of the other teachers taught the kids and I how to disco dance so we could dance as the entertainment part of their graduation. It was quite the scene. The baseball backstop was decorated with crepe paper flowers, the Navajo parents and elders were spread out on Navajo blankets in their Navajo traditional clothes, mutton stew and fry bread cooking in the back…..and there were the kids and I in the front, dancing to loud disco music 🙂
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Sounds like you and the children had a great time! Music as it should be! And oh…I agree that man was clueless. A wee bit too much white wine perhaps. 🙂
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Love this story. It sounds incredibly familiar to those of us who were around during the disco era! You have amazing talent with both writing and singing. I am really going to miss you when you move.
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Thank you! I will miss all the people I have met here in Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia too.
But, I will not miss all of this cold snow and ice!
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I’d be willing to bet none of the alternate endings included going back to his house.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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That’s absolutely correct! But I am sure that there is some creative soul out there who could figure out how to write that particular scenario!
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lol – so glad those days are long gone.
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I hope so…but…in this life, one never knows!
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How that “Aquarius” went on with his life is something to ponder upon…
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Yes it is! That was 27 years ago, so I wonder what he looks like now or if he is still in this world. Did he dance his way out of Disco and on into the Mosh Pit? Did he ever find the love of his life? Or did he simply become comfortable with being alone?
There is most definitely a story here….
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Ewwwwww.Gross. Great story! How much of it is true? Sounds like a horrible time. I’m happy to say that in my teens I had some wonderful disco experiences, but then my boyfriend was one of the guys in the band, so I had “special status” and danced with the other band girlfriends. Loads of fun. I never went to a disco with old fat men. I give thanks that I was spared that.
Alison
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There was a degree of protection with that “special status!”
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Yes there was.
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Discos are the same the world over. This is exactly how I remembered the few I went to as a youngster. A perfect description.
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Hahaha! Well…Maybe there was some comfort knowing no matter where we went in the world, there was going to be that one place that was eerily familiar. 😉
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Indeed your right. We are creatures of habit and we like our familiarity.
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excellent piece of descriptive prose… have a good day
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Oh, I WISH disco was still around where I lived in the late ’80’s. I think it was long gone for my area by the time I was in high school. I was always so sad that I missed the disco era. But . . . most people love to dance to disco NOW. So fun! I use it in my Nia classes!
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I unfortunately don’t know my left foot from my right, so (needless to say) I have never been a good dancer.
Where I live now, Country line Dancing is extremely popular.
I haven’t tried to learn yet……
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Dancing is good for the brain and the body. Most of the time people don’t care so much about if you do it perfect, but more about if you are trying and having fun. I bet you would like it!
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Oh…I just saw your comment–about a year and a half after you wrote it. Kind of slow response on my part! I like dancing. I just didn’t like the feeling of desperation that was in the air that night at ‘Studmakers’–everyone with eyes searching.
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Yeah, sometimes bar dancing is like that. Everyone on the make. I don’t remember the post, but I do know that dancing with friends and forgetting about the rest of the crowd is awesome!
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Hi My name is Freddy Zapp im from England in 1980 and up to 1988 i went to Studebakers Salt lake city the dj’s played great music with the bar staff dancing up on the bars to some 1960s soul classics in 1988 i did a fire eating act on the dance floor there , a guy from MTV was standing at the bar and when i went to the bar to get a drink the guy asked me to come over to MTV to do adverts for him which i did 5 in total which he picked the 3 of the best ones to use but the one i liked was with me saying First there was Radio then there was TV but twice as HOT is MTV. [ with me doing a big fire blow ball right into the camera. i thought the club was outstanding and i only saw the energy and nice people having brilliant times i have never worked in any better clubs in my life but the Twilight Zone in Redruth Cornwall England which would match it .i worked there for 9 years as a dj and cabaret show man
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