It was late Sunday evening, and the parents were making their usual nightly rounds. To Jack and Daniel, it had been obvious that something was bothering their eldest son. He'd been unusually quiet for the last few days and had been keeping to himself a lot more than was normal.
“Jeff, if you don't want to tell us ...” Daniel began as he sat down in the boy's desk chair.
“... then you don't have to,” Jack completed, sitting down on a stool that was next to the wall, his demeanor expectant, totally contradicting his words.
Jeff chuckled. He was sitting on his bed, a photography magazine open in front of him.
Jack's attention went from the teenager to the five-by-seven photograph that was also sitting on the bed. It was a head shot of a pretty young woman, her long hair splayed beautifully in the profile pose, and her brown eyes shining with affection for the photographer, who the general knew just happened to be Jeff.
“Son, did you and Chely have a fight?” Jack questioned.
“No. Things are great,” Jeff answered, his eyes going to the photograph of his girlfriend, Chely Tillison. “I haven't told you something that I should have mentioned a while back.”
Jack and Daniel exchanged a look. Suddenly, they both panicked, their minds wandering to a potentially bad place. Jeff and Chely had known each other for two-and-a-half years. They'd been steadies virtually from the beginning, though their relationship hadn't intensified until June 2012. In a blink of an eye, the parents now wondered if perhaps the relationship had gone 'too' far.
The teen reached into his nightstand and pulled out an official looking letter. Seeing this, the couple took breaths of relief, Daniel rolling his eyes and Jack just shaking his head swiftly a couple of times. Staring at the letter, Jeff hadn't noticed either man's reaction.
“I've been accepted at the University of Cincinnati, to their DAAP program,” Jeff advised about the school's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, reaching out to let Jack, who was the closest, take the notification and review it.
“That was your first choice,” Daniel replied. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. I'm really happy about it. Their co-op program is really great,” Jeff spoke quietly.
Daniel watched the boy look down at the framed photograph and realized the problem.
“Chely's going to Stanford, isn't she?” the archaeologist asked.
“Yes. She's received notification, too,” Jeff answered.
“So, how do you feel, really?” the younger father queried.
“I am happy, but ... everything is going to change. I care about Chely, a lot, but I don't know what the future is going to be. I guess I'm sad because I ...”
“... care about her and don't want to be so far apart,” Daniel completed softly.
“Dad, Daddy, I've been thinking about something for a few days. I'd like to think that Chely and I will make it through the next four or five years, but I don't know. We're going to be apart most of the time. Maybe we'll change. Maybe she'll meet someone else. Maybe ...”
The young man looked away and then stood up, walking towards his closet. His parents waited, giving him time to process his feelings. Jeff turned, looking from parent to parent.
“I want to do something really special for Chely, just in case things do change because, no matter what, I want us to remember each other and what we've mean to each other.”
“What did you have in mind?” Jack asked.
“Gidget, Tammy, Frankie and Annette,” the teen responded cryptically.
“Can you be a little clearer on that?” the general asked.
“Dad, we both love the fifties, the fun of it. We watch old movies and listen to old albums all the time, and we've talked about what high school must have been like back then.”
“Haven't a clue,” Jack said. “I was a baby then.”
“Jack!”
“Okay, slight exaggeration. What did you have in mind?” Jack repeated.
“A sock hop.”
“A sock hop?” both men questioned at the same time.
“Yeah,” Jeff said with a smile. “And, I even have a way to make it special for other people, I think.”
Looking at his lover for a second, Jack then replied, “We're listening.”
“I have some money saved for Chely's birthday in May, but I'd like to use it for this. Actually, May would be the perfect time for the hop, but ... I need your help. I'd pay you back.”
“Son, just settle down and tell us what you're thinking,” Jack advised, noticing how excited and anxious the high school senior was becoming.
With a nod, Jeff walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down. He was now just a foot or two away from his folks, which made their conversation more intimate. It's what he wanted. This gift was very important to him, and he desperately needed his parents to believe in his vision and desire.
====
“Gaffy, what are you so excited about?” Chely asked her boyfriend as they sat on the sofa at her house. “Wait. Bianca!” she yelled at her twelve-year-old sister.
“I wasn't eavesdropping,” Bianca whined.
“I know. Go and *not* eavesdrop someplace else. Now!”
With a scowl, the pre-teen walked away, venturing on to other things and leaving the two teenagers alone together.
“We have plans to make,” Jeff said.
“For what?”
“Your birthday. Chel, I wanted this to be a surprise, but I also think you'd like it more if you could help to plan it.” With a huge grin, Jeff announced, “We're going to have a sock hop.”
“A sock hop? For real? Where? When? Oh, Jeff!” the girl exclaimed, hugging her boyfriend without knowing a single detail.
“You know the nursing home my family visit sometimes?”
Chely grinned, sensing where your boyfriend was headed, and responded, “They'll love it!”
“And we can invite some of our friends, too. We're gonna go all out, Chel. It's going to be a night that we'll remember forever.”
“I need to go shopping!”
“There's a great place online that sells clothes, and ...”
Excitement permeating through them both, Jeff and Chely proceeded to discuss plans for the upcoming sock hop.
====
“What's this?” Daniel asked when Chely's father, Micah Tillison, handed him a check.
“Naomi and I talked it over, and we wanted to help with the cost of this shindig,” Micah answered.
“It's not necessary,” Daniel responded.
“We insist,” Naomi stated with an assuring smile.
“Thank you,” Daniel spoke graciously, putting the check in his pocket.
“The decor is perfect,” Naomi observed happily. “And what a wonderful way to help our senior citizens.”
“It was Jeff's idea originally to include the residents of a nursing home we like to visit with our children, but then Chely suggested this,” Daniel pointed out.
Instead of the nursing home, where residents really couldn't enjoy the dance, the sock hop was being held at a local senior citizen's club that Pete Shanahan had suggested. Still, many of Jeff and Chely's friends were going to accompany them to the nursing home tomorrow night to visit with the residents there. It would give the soon-to-be graduates a chance to wear their period clothing one more time.
The club's gymnasium had been transformed into a gymnasium, complete with a wooden floor. Balloon arches were on all four corners of the room. There was a soda shop set up on one side, with small tables and a couple of booths, the tables covered with red gingham tablecloths. The floor in that area was laid out in a black and white checkered pattern.
On one wall was an old-fashioned jukebox that Jack had rented from an Air Force buddy, and it was loaded with music from the 1950's.
Posters of teen idols from the fifties adorned the walls, and there were a couple of life-size standees of favorite matinee idols from the era.
All of the teenagers at the party, and some of the senior citizens, too, were dressed in appropriate sock hop attire that featured a lot of shades of pinks and yellows along with blacks. Several of the girls were wearing poodle skirts, light sweaters, bobby socks, and saddle shoes. Girls with long hair wore it pulled back in a ponytail, usually with a ribbon to keep it tied.
A couple of the girls were more daring, wearing tight pencil skirts, a button down blouse with the top two buttons undone, bright red lipstick, and a large bouffant hairstyle.
Many of the boys wore a letter sweater over a white T-shirt and blue jeans with white socks and penny loafers, giving them the all-American good boy look. A couple of them had waxed their hair in order to make their new, and temporary, crew cuts stand up nice and stiff.
A few of the males chose to wear blue jeans low on their hips with a white T-shirt and a black leather jacket. To complete their greaser look, they wore sunglasses.
The moms in charge of the refreshments decided to dress as carhops. They wore short, flippy skirts, blouses with a bow tie, and caps. They carried trays that were made, in part, out of old forty-five records.
“Chel, you just put my name down for all the dances,” Jeff said, motioning at the girl's dance card that she'd been given upon entering.
“Except for the dance I get,” Jack interjected.
“And me,” Daniel added, smiling at the young woman, who blushed and began to fill in her card.
“I've never used one of these,” Jennifer mused. “How do you use them?”
“I feel so old,” Jack groused.
“Jen, at dances, the girls used to carry these cards with them all night. The boys would ask them for a dance, and the girl would write down their names,” Jeff explained.
“Save the last dance for me?” Jennifer chuckled, referring to the old song by The Drifters.
“Exactly.”
“I'll take photographs of the couples while you're dancing with Dad and Daddy,” Jeff told his girlfriend.
“Time to hop!” the DJ hired for the event called out.
Most of the teens removed their shoes as they ventured onto the dance floor.
“This party is really gonna rock,” Jack expressed happily as he took a step over to stand by his husband.
“Yep,” Daniel confirmed. “We'll rock around the clock tonight.”
Jack looked at his husband and dryly remarked, “That's good, Danny, real good.”
“And, uh, Jack? Your dance card is filled, too, you know, except for the dances with Jen and Chely,” Daniel said, looking at his husband with love, and a slight leer.
====
“Jeff, it was perfect. Thank you so much,” Chely said before the young couple shared a kiss.
“Chel, I hope that a few years from now, we're still here, like this.”
“I hope so, too,” Chely replied. “If Frankie and Annette could survive all those beach parties, we can survive going to different colleges for a few years.”
“And we still have the summer.”
Jeff and Chely kissed again before he got out of his truck to open her door for her. They walked towards her front door, hand in hand. Uncertain about their future, but happy about their present, the young adults went inside the Tillison home to talk and snuggle for a while longer.
====
Meanwhile, Jack and Daniel checked on their brood and then settled down on the sofa, each patting their beloved beagles.
“So, what are the odds?” Jack asked suddenly.
“Odds on what?” Daniel asked as he kissed Katie on the nose.
“That Jeff and Chely will still be a couple when they graduate,” the older man responded.
“I have no idea, but she's a nice girl,” Daniel replied.
“She'd make a good daughter-in-law.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” Daniel said, reaching into his pocket for the check. “Micah gave me this earlier.”
Jack whistled as he looked at the check. He was impressed.
“Good in-laws.”
“Jack,” Daniel chuckled. “Why is it that if we're talking about Jennifer and Peter or any of our daughters and potential boyfriends, let alone husbands, that you go berserk, but you can sit it calmly and talk about Jeff getting married?”
“Easy. He's a man,” Jack answered, going face to face with Bijou, pretending to growl and making all kinds of noises.
Daniel stared at his husband for almost a minute, contemplating not only the older man's answer to his last question, but the manner in which he was playing with the mama beagle.
“Yep. It's moments like this that make me wonder why I married you,” Daniel quipped, shaking his head.
Not to be outdone, Jack replied, “Not just once, Danny, but *three times*, and you even proposed the first time.”
“Yeah. Why'd I do that again?” the archaeologist teased.
“Because you love me,” Jack reminded with a smile.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot,” Daniel said dryly before a big smile emerged on his face.
The couple shared a loving look, a laugh, and a brief kiss before continuing their playtime with Bijou and Katie. They might not be the traditional married couple, but Jack and Daniel, and their brood, were happy as can be in Colorado Springs.
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