I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

On a weekend in May 1954, I drove from Connecticut to New York City to visit a high school friend. When I arrived, he told me that his friends were going to an open house at Sarah Lawrence College and I could tag along.

There, I met a Japanese student and we went to the Bronxville Inn, where we slow-danced, twisted, and turned to the jukebox. She was fun to dance with. Eventually, we noticed a room where a band was playing. Inside, we saw people sitting at long tables, so we found one with two vacant seats. When we learned we were crashing a junior-college class reunion, that didn’t stop us; we got up and danced. 

As midnight approached, I walked her back to her dorm. We sat together in the parlor for about a half-hour, then she ran across the room and up the stairs. I never saw her again.

Some years later, her name appeared in the news in connection with the Beatles. I went to my little black book and confirmed the name I’d written there: Yoko Ono.

—CLARK DEAN ’53, Glencoe, Ill.