Music While At Bartow High School - 1950s

I graduated in June 1959. The music I enjoyed during 1953-1959 was rock and roll that you could dance to and slow ballads so you could dance close to someone. In the beginning the big deal was going to the Bartow Civic Center every Friday and Saturday night to meet your friends to dance to the jukebox. We had a great woman chaperon who fed the juke box all night until 11:00 pm. It cost all of .50 cents to a dollar and you got your hand stamped. If you left, you could not come back in. No drinking, smoking or drugs. They also had billiards, but music and dancing was a big thing. We all loved it. 

Mother and Daddy would drop me off and pick me up. Sixth through nineth grades were the most popular with dancing. The boys loved it too. The jukebox was great. 45's were popular and the songs were great. Bill Haley and The Comets were also a popular group. I can't remember all the names but I know them when they are played. Maybe Eddie can help me out with the names that were so popular in the '50s. 

The kids in high school loved the rock and roll and the love songs. Slowly, in high school, drinking started showing up at the dances and smoking. Slowly the dances started using local bands to play, and it became more expensive to come. Slowly, over time students lost interest and did things more private and probably more against the law. By then, I was going steady with Eddie. We went steady for 5 years, and then he went into the military some months later. We got married and moved away for 5 years. We were into music in a big way. I really liked dancing.

Elvis and many other rock and rollers were becoming popular with the kids. Not so much with the parents. Elvis was just so sexy and he got the kids moving, sometimes in ways parents weren't happy with, but I loved it. I actually saw Elvis on the stage at the Lakeland, FL theater downtown. He was in his early years, just starting. He wore his fancy outfit and everyone just loved him. I must have been in Jr High. I can still remember him up there singing. We were lucky and didn't know it. The Beatles were really more popular in the 60s. I was already out of school and married by then.