The Importance Of Youth Dances

In describing her time in high school, my grandmother said, “My life was kind of quiet, not too extravagant, I was involved with church and school activities and so were my friends.” She also explained that a popular event that every high school teenager would go to during the weekends were the weekly youth dances in the Wailuku town community center. “It was the thing all of us kids used to do, we would go with our friends and the boys would always come up to us and ask us to dance.” These courtship practices are similar to those discussed in Grazian’s article, where males assert their hegemonic masculinity by pursuing a girl to dance with (Grazian). My grandmother explained that during one of these dances, she was conversing with her friends until my grandfather approached her and politely asked her to dance with him. She claims that her dance with my grandfather was the first dance that she ever had with a boy, as the others who asked her before were boisterous and obnoxious.
After that night, they would look for each other at the following youth dances and began dating. “Since we went to different schools and lived far from each other we planned

When my mother was 9 years old, her brother Derek was killed in a tragic car accident that devastated their family. According to my mother, my grandfather did not respond well to the tragedy by drinking heavily and becoming emotionally distant from their family. My mother also recalled my grandmother remaining supportive throughout their time of grief, as she continued to manage the household and would counsel her each of her children through the loss of their brother. “It was a really tough time for us and I wasn’t sure if we would ever be the same, but thanks to grandma she helped us though and we eventually were able to heal and keep him in our hearts,” said my