Hooked On A Feeling(Ed DeRousse) My girlfriend, CJ, and I were to meet two other couples, Dave and Martha, Bobby and Susan, at the Lions Club dance. It was a cool May night in 1968. It was a blast whenever we got together. Bobby was the only good dancer of the guys. All three of the girls were terrific dancers, though. Dave and I were always up to trying not to trip ourselves or our dates while on the dance floor.

The band was playing all the good songs; fast, slow, and in between. They were playing “96 Tears” when we entered. It was one of my personal favorites.

We strolled, twisted, watusied. We even did the swim. It seemed as if every song had its own routine. Dave and I attempted those and other choreographed dances. I tried to move my arms, shoulders, legs, and feet in a vain attempt to stay in time to the beat of the music. I honestly didn’t care, though, how I looked. I was dancing with my baby.
I can only remember a few of the songs: “And I Love Her” by the Beatles, “Surfer Girl” by the Beach Boys, “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge. Those, of course were the slow songs. Who doesn’t love dancing with their favorite girl to a slow song?

At ten thirty, CJ and I said our goodbyes and left the dance. City Lake was calling. I had actually been to this location many times. But until I met CJ, its only purpose was to fish or camp with my friends. The lane to the city lake was a tree lined half mile rocky road which opened up to a parking lot in front of the lake. The lake was surrounded on all sides by a heavy line of trees, except where the parking lot and a shoreline area had been cut out. It was a manmade lake used by the city for its water supply. A pumping station was set back a few yards from the shore line. There were several picnic tables scattered about. During the day time, the site had lots of use but the place was off limits at night.
There was an indentation in the thick woods at rear end of the parking lot. That indentation wasn’t paved or rocked. It had been cut out by someone. The ground was grassy and hard. It appeared to go back into the woods, a hundred feet or so and was perhaps twenty feet wide. The land surrounding the lake was used by a local farmer and I think he sometimes used this spot to store some equipment.

After dating CJ for a while, I began to look at the indentation with a different perspective. The spot, I speculated, would be a great place to share with my red head when the time was right. I hoped it would be at night and that none of my friends shared the same thoughts.
I was both excited and anxious about sharing City Lake that night with my date. CJ really did not know why we were leaving the dance earlier than normal. I had not shared my lake plans with her yet.

Under threat of death, my brother had loaned me his 1955 red and white BelAir Chevy convertible. I reminded CJ we had a convertible and it would be a shame to not take advantage of riding around town with the top down. Most likely that opportunity would not come again. Fortunately, she agreed.
We took a couple of laps around town, top down. Then unbeknownst to the beautiful red head, I headed to City Lake. I had finally worked up the nerve to share that spot with her. I was sure that CJ did not object because she cozied up even closer to me.

That half mile drive down the tree lined lane with my heart beating more rapidly than I could previously remember seemed to take forever. When we finally got to the parking lot, it was empty.

I was sure we were alone so I turned off the headlights and found my way to the cut and backed into it until I could sense a tree behind me. It was essential that I was far enough into the cut that our car could not be seen if someone ventured onto the parking lot. I turned off the engine and sat still for a moment. My heart was pounding and it felt like CJ’s was too.

Except for the crickets, the night was quiet and cool. We could see the lake and the stars above it, as we looked down the path we just backed in to. The cool of the night crept into the topless Chevy. I knew it wouldn’t be long before we would feel its effect on us. The top had to go up.

I had never done what I thought I was about to do. And I knew my date could say the same. Perhaps because of that, I remember thinking I really had no interest in letting the birds in the tree branches above us in on what I hoped was about to happen under our canopy. Self conscious, I guess.
The top was locked down and we could feel the temperature rise as the coolness escaped through the open windows only to creep back in a few seconds later. Temperature control would be important this night. Not too cold. Not too warm. So we rolled the windows about three quarters of the way up.

We sat there quietly for a few moments and watched the stars twinkle in the water. It was just like they wrote about in those famous love stories and movies. You know those beach blanket movies!

It made us feel like Frankie and Annette on the beach at night. I felt like breaking out in song. But, I knew, that would only ruin the mood.
Instead I made note of the starry sky and how they twinkled and shone so bright. My right arm was around her shoulders and her head was cuddled next to mine.

I turned to my lovely red head, looked into her eyes, and said “I can’t stop this feeling, deep inside of me. You’ve hooked me, Babe! I have a feeling we are forever.”

My plan was to seal that with a passionate kiss, but I didn’t get to it. Something unforeseen happened. Our privacy was rudely interrupted.
Just as I was about to validate my feelings for her, car lights appeared through the trees to our right. And they seemed headed for the parking lot.
A definite mood killer!!

Our hope, of course, was that they would turn around and head back the way they came.
That didn’t happen. The head lights, now on the parking lot, disappeared from our view, yet we could hear noise from the engine and the rattle of tires on the asphalt pavement coming closer to us.

We watched as two red lights matched up with entrance to our supposedly hidden lane. The red lights continued in our direction until the car they were attached to finally parked next to us.

We gave some thoughts to ducking down below the windows but realized it would do no good. We were caught and also quite relieved it was not in an uncompromising position.

There was a couple in the car, of course. The couple in the car rolled the window down closest to us. It turned out to be Bobby and Susan. Apparently, they were about to share our perfect location with each other.

They told us they did not anticipate finding anyone there. They, like us, were expecting to share quiet time together. They apologized and left.
The pounding of our hearts ceased when we saw Bobby’s and Susan’s brake lights. We were alone again.

There was nothing else to do. I started the car, turned on the lights and got my date home just a little earlier than planned. Our privacy had been violated and we were sure it would be again if we returned. It was the perfect location, we thought. The atmosphere, the quiet, the esthetics, the seclusion, the heart pounding emotion. It was all there. My red head and I knew we would never be able to match that exact combination again.

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