The Villages - November 2020 - 27

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Sharlene wears her hair in an updo, a graceful
sweep of silver with a shimmer to match her smile. She
notes that on her wedding day, she wore her hair down
as always, but later began pulling it back after Perley
mentioned how elegant it looks this way.
"I've been wearing my hair up for 65 years now," she
says, laughing.
Perley looks at her fondly, shaking his head in
agreement.
Their daughter Perlene (whose name is a melding of
her parents') sits across from the two, having come for a
visit from her home next door.
True to her genes, Perlene has a passion for dance.
She's also quite enamored of her parents.
"They're bright and spry," she says. "Nothing old
about them!"
The three talk about their dance roots, how dancing is in the blood.
"My mother was a prize-winning waltzer," Sharlene says. "His mother
(motioning to her husband Perley) loved to dance, so we both learned at
home. On cruise ships, we learned the salsa and merengue."
Their daughter Perlene sets a vintage leather T-strap high heel on the
coffee table, beside a tarnished trophy - her grandmother's (Sharlene's
mother). The trophy reads: NH Dance Championships 1932, 2nd prize.
"I played with those shoes the whole time I was growing up," Sharlene
says.
Dancing, she notes, is what brought her and Perley together.
"We met in 8th grade," she said. "I was always tall and nobody wanted
to dance with me. But he was tall, too."
"And handsome," Perlene interjects, smiling at her father.
"I looked over at him," Sharlene continues. "I saw him dance, and
said, 'Hmm, I want to dance with him,' I made sure when the time came,
I was in his line. So that was the beginning."
The couple dated throughout high school and then wrote letters to
one another when Perley joined the Air Force.
"He was always in my mind, and I was in his," Sharlene said.
Home on furlough one summer, Perley proposed marriage. The ring
came later, via the postal system.
"One night, the post office called me - he'd sent me a package from
Iceland," Sharlene said. "Ten o'clock at night, I went to the post office. They
came to the back door and gave me the box. So I got in my car and started
to open it. Then I looked and there was a little window with bars on it - the
three (postal workers) were peeking out," she recalls, laughing.
Their first cruise was a honeymoon gift. They were 18 and 19, respectively,
and eager for the new adventure.
"When the company I worked for found out I got married, they made us
reservations on the Queen Mary," Perley said. "We were in cabin class with
no bathtub or showers, and we had to make arrangements with the room
steward or stewardess to bathe. We got lost on the ship every day."
Sea sick and out of sorts, Perley was not impressed.

I SAW HIM DANCE, AND
SAID, 'HMM, I WANT
TO DANCE WITH HIM,' I
MADE SURE WHEN THE
TIME CAME, I WAS IN
HIS LINE. SO THAT WAS
THE BEGINNING.
- Sharlene O'Rourke
MAGAZINE

27
The Villages - November 2020

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