"This is my birthday month so write about your favorite birthday celebration of all time or the best birthday party you've ever attended or given or the best party you've eveer attended, given, or received. Pretty much any celebration that comes to mind. You can even write about what would be your ideal themed part."
My favorite party was hosted by my first "real" boss, William J. (Bill) Janklow. He was a legal genius, and a strong-willed and often controversial Attorney General and 4-term Governor of the State of South Dakota, my home state.
The University of South Dakota Library has a brief Janklow biography posted on its website. There is also a brief biography on the South Dakota Hall of Fame website.
But this post is not about Bill's long and storied political career. And it's not about war stories from my days in the South Dakota Attorney General's Office when Bill was my boss. This post is about one AMAZING sock hop!
Bill had an INCREDIBLY LARGE collection of 45 rpm records and 33 rpm albums from the 1950s and 1960s. He raised over $2 million for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, his favorite charity, by playing those records as "BJ the DJ" at fundraising events. He was a walking encyclopedia of oldies music trivia!
Click THIS LINK to watch some rare footage -- a short video clip of one of his "BJ the DJ" dances, produced by KELO-TV long before anyone had a video camera in a cell phone!
My memory is not what it used to be, but I think the most memorable "BJ the DJ" event I attended in Sioux Falls was a celebration of Bill's 50th birthday in 1989. Of course, it was also a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish. Everyone was expected to come in bobby sox and 50s attire. I still have my souvenir saddle shoes!
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It was great fun to watch the children of the 50s jitterbugging to the songs of their youth -- and we children of the 60s could twist and shout and do the locomotion. Even my laid back brother danced!
Ahh--those were the good old days!!
TTFN
LeAnn
hahaha! What fun - and I remember wearing those shoes to school as a child! LOL
ReplyDeleteActually -- so did I, but I was in elementary school.
DeleteI never had those kind shoes... it must be skip the russian trend somehow:)
ReplyDeleteHa.Ha. Saddle shoes were quite the rage in the late 50s. But impossible to keep clean with all that white.
DeleteI love the shoes! What a great memory. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Melissa! Love your pics of cute little Essley!
DeleteWhat a great boss! It must have been interesting working for him! I enjoyed watching the video with the people dancing to 50s tunes and of course I LOVE the shoes :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Duni! He was a great boss. I just haven't been able to part with the shoes.
DeleteThanks, Duni! He was a great boss. I just haven't been able to part with the shoes.
DeleteOh that sounds like fun! Bill must have been interesting to work for. He sure had a sense of fun--at least when it came to music.
ReplyDeleteI wore saddle shoes in the 60s. And you know what, they were actually comfortable.
They were very comfortable--but I was always scuffing the white part. Shoe polish time.
DeleteThat sounds awesome LeAnn. I love the whole idea of BJ the DJ :)
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun time -- and for a good cause.
DeleteI never was a dancer, but I loved the shoes! I wore a pair--a long time ago!
ReplyDeleteWe won't say how long, right? I wore them, too, back in the day.
DeleteThat was a fun video to watch! My brother's girlfriends had those clunky saddle oxfords and I wanted them too! I remember having some in jr. high school that were tan with a blue saddle -- very cool I must say!
ReplyDeleteHa.Ha. Those were the days!
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