Winter Dance by John O’Hara, 1962
The magic trick:
Showing a teenage social structure in exhausting detail
We’re back in John O’Hara’s Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, for the second straight day on SSMT. Also for the second day, our story begins with us awaiting the arrival of a woman having traveled across the state in the snow. Yesterday, “Zero” introduced us to a very adult problem. Today’s story is a bit more innocent. “Winter Dance” is about teenagers. Specifically, our protagonist, Teddy is really nervous about talking to Natalie ahead of the night’s winter dance.
It sounds very innocent. And in many ways, it is innocent. But it’s no less intense. The kids in this story analyze their social options and strategies with a degree of detail that will amaze you. It’s very early F. Scott Fitzgerald in that way.
These kids’ social intelligence is off the charts as they navigate how they feel, how it will look, how it will make other people feel, and how those other people’s other feelings will make them look.
Exhausting.
And that’s quite a trick on O’Hara’s part.
The selection:
“She’ll be so busy she won’t pay any attention till you speak to her. Didn’t you ever go shopping with a woman?”
“Oh, you know so much about everything, you make me sick.”
“You’re the one that makes me sick. What’s the worst she can do? Chop off your head and put it on a pikestaff? The positively worst she can do is say, ‘No thank you, Ted. I do not wish a hot chocolate.’ “
“If I thought for sure she wanted a hot chocolate,” said the boy. “Maybe she’s not going to stay in there very long. By the time we get there maybe she’ll be just leaving. Nobody gets to the tea dance before six. She’s spending the night at Margery Hill’s. If they all left at half past five, they’ll be at the club around six. If she has to change her dress, that’ll take her at least a half an hour. Five o’clock. I’m trying to dope out whether she’s going to be in Winkleman’s long enough. And anyway, maybe she’s going some place else besides Winkleman’s. I don’t think Winkleman’s is such a good idea. I’ll bet she has other places to go. No, she wouldn’t have time for a hot chocolate.”
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