Everything I Know I Learned From Dirty Dancing

That was the summer of 1987 - when everybody called me Meg, and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Clinton was in office, before Nirvana came, when I couldn't wait to start junior high, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as Patrick Swayze. That was the summer we went to see Dirty Dancing. These are the lessons I learned from Dirty Dancing, the things that stayed with me long after that summer was over.

 

1. Even though God had yet to give me maracas, once he did, I would always remember to shake them
2. Spaghetti arms: Bad
3. Staying in my own dance space: Good
4. Always take "that stuff" off my face before my mother sees it
5. Three weeks in the catskills feels like a year
6. I'll hurt him if I don't trust him...
7. Carrying a watermelon can get me places I might not get into otherwise
8. Dance people keep the guests happy
9. Some guys shoud keep their pickle on their plates, and leave the hard stuff to Patrick Swayze
10. I can live off Jujubees
11. The first woman in the cabinet was named Francis
12. There are people willing to stand up for other people no matter what it costs them
13. Some people count and some people don't
14. It takes a real saint to ask Daddy
15. I should never put my heal down
16. A guy who owns two hotels will always do better with the ladies then the lifeguard
17. Always pack my coral shoes
18. Never end the season with the pachenga
19. Nobody puts baby in a corner

These are the things that actually float through my head whenever I hear any song off the soundtrack. Knowing this movie front to back was truly part of the experience of growing up in the eighties.