I Carried a Watermelon: Dirty Dancing and Me

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First published in Great Britain by

HQ, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

Copyright © Katy Brand 2019

Katy Brand asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Source ISBN: 9780008352783

E-book Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008352806

Version: 2019-09-12

For all the Babys. Never stop trying.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

1 Hungry Eyes

2 Do You Love Me?

3 De Todo Un Poco

4 Big Girls Don’t Cry

5 You Don’t Own Me

6 In the Still of the Night

7 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

8 Overload

9 Kellerman’s Anthem

10 (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life

References

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

This is the book I have always wanted to write. I just hadn’t realised it until 2019, the year of my fortieth birthday. My husband asked me what I wanted to do to mark the occasion, and I said without hesitation, ‘I want to watch Dirty Dancing.’ It even surprised me a little, hearing it come out of my mouth, but we sat down, found it on Netflix and settled in for the evening. I’m so glad we did, because it felt like coming home.

It had been some time since I’d last seen Dirty Dancing – a few years – but as soon we pressed play, and that banging, jangling opening to ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ by The Four Seasons came through the speakers, I was right back there where it all began. I felt excited. I felt it wouldn’t let me down, and I hoped I wouldn’t regret it. I think in some ways I wanted to have a moment to reflect on the first 40 years of my life. To look back on my teenage years, and compare myself now, to the girl I was then. I needed a way to measure my progress, and with that need came the realisation that Dirty Dancing has been a constant influence in my life since I was 11 years old. Would my reaction to it remain the same? How much of that obsessed girl (because I was entirely obsessed with Dirty Dancing) remains within me, and how much of her has fallen away?

Of course, since my obsession abated from its height at around the age of 13 (when I was viewing it daily), I have watched Dirty Dancing a good few times, but as an adult I haven’t really concentrated on it, or myself properly, as it plays out on the screen. Suddenly I wanted to focus on it, to really see it again in all its glory. I saw the fortieth birthday screening as part of my development as a person, and maybe a way of rounding off the first half of my life, giving me a pause as I enter the foothills of middle age, and beyond. This book is largely the product of that evening. I’m so glad my husband was cool with it.

And afterwards, as the credits rolled, I sat quietly by myself for a moment, enjoying that special glow you get when a story transports you. It’s a ‘proper film’ – exciting, honest, sexy, moving, and uplifting. It was all still there. It’s so life-affirming and joyful, but with enough substance to keep you satisfied. Life can wear you down, and by now I have suffered a few slings and arrows of my own, but I went to bed, newly 40 feeling as invincible as I had as a teenager. That night I fell in love with Dirty Dancing all over again.

But perhaps it’s also been a while since you’ve seen it and are a little hazy yourself, or maybe you’ve never seen it at all (in which case, I’m somewhat amazed you are reading this book – you must really like me, thanks very much …), so here is a summary of Dirty Dancing, that I am going to write in a slight frenzy of love and excitement – can I get it all down in one attempt without checking anything? Let’s go …

The Plot of Dirty Dancing

It’s 1963 and Baby Houseman is 17 years old. As the film opens, she is sitting in the backseat of her family’s car, as they drive to a holiday resort called Kellerman’s in the Catskill Mountains. Baby is reading in the back, and somehow managing not to get car-sick. Her father Jake, a hard-working doctor, drives with a smile of contentment on his face, every inch the respectable family man. Her mother, Marge, is calm and understanding, while Lisa, Baby’s older sister, panics that she hasn’t brought enough shoes.

At first, the family settle into resort life, with its dancing lessons and boating lake. It’s like a posh American Butlin’s. It’s relaxing, yes, but (dare Baby admit it?) perhaps a little boring. All this changes when professional dance instructors Penny and Johnny put on an evening show for the guests. Their performance is energetic, sexy and powerful, and Baby is transfixed, but also intrigued.