A Summer Evening In The 50's

The sun's gone down already but night time is still hours away
and the evening star sparkles brightly in a crystal clear sky...
The air's so fresh and clean it almost feels like we could fly.
We're cruisin' down 67 highway in his old green Hudson
all shined up and lookin right...Only one six pack to share
between us, but we all know that money's been really tight.
He's drivin' with one hand on the wheel and tryin' to be real sly
with the other...a friend of mine's in the back seat, makin' out
with my dates twin brother.
You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog's playin' on the radio then
Carl Perkins starts singin' about his Blue Suede Shoes...
I've heard these songs before but I think they're pretty new.
We stop in for a couple of dances at the Silver Star Cafe
down on highway 53 ...there's a sign up above the
juke box tellin' us... "play two songs and the third one's free!"
We're eight teen-agers out here just ridin' round and we head
on up to Wappapello Lake...got no place else to go and these
boys that we're out with, yeah, they're always on the make.
Some day we may have enough money for movie theaters
and James Dean...and those fancy curb service restaurants
that we've heard about but for now, it's the Dairy Queen.
But we do things like drag races, sock hops, and I'm wearin'
his class ring on a chain...and 3-D movies and that soda shop
way out there on Elm Street and West Main.
We wear pony tails, poodle skirts, pennies in our loafers and
saddle shoes...our new blue jeans rolled up twice, greased down
hair and D.A. hair cuts , too.
We go to a drive-in movie now and then and if we get caught
we'd sure enough be sunk...because only two of us ever pay
and there's six more crammed into that big ol' trunk.
But tonight we'll steal ourselves a watermellon or two, not
exactly a Sunday sorta picnic...we got no little cakes to eat, and
no fried chicken, but we've got hot dogs... a'cookin' on a stick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Helen Thomas