Amid a tang of perspiration and perfume, 60 women in shiny tights and baggy T shirts strut to the strains of Jailhouse Rock. In the large, carpeted room, the instructor, sleek as a seal in a chocolate-colored unitard, takes the Elvis song from the record player when it finishes and puts on George Michael's Kissing a Fool. She cocks a hip and asks the women: "Will anyone else be kissing a fool today?" She is answered by a breathless chorus: "Yeah!" "I know I will!" "You got it!"
Husbands, it's 10 a.m. Do you know where your wives are? Selling real estate? Processing words? Marauding the malls? Forget it. Every weekday morning in Pennington, N.J., an upscale village of 2,200 about halfway between New York City and Philadelphia, a number of busy wives and a sprinkling of single women put aside all thoughts of jobs, husbands and children to gather for what has become a new style women's club. In the aerobic dance classes at the local Jazzercise center, women are talking about who's hot on the silver screen, trading bargain tips and supporting new mothers and divorcees. The workout classes have become a combination gossip fence, networking center, self-help group, junior high locker room and place to affirm grownup community values. "There's no place like it," says JoAnn Mattia, 32, a physical- education teacher who gets to four or five hour-long classes each week. "Everybody talks about what videos to rent and which stores have the best sales. I've made new friends here."
Women in the speedy suburbs need a guilt-free place to gather. Old-fashioned women's clubs no longer seem to fill the bill. The country-club lunch -- a large helping of chitchat served with a garnish of innuendo -- is too fattening and "unsupportive." Self-employed or with part-time jobs, with homes to run and volunteer work to do, what woman can spare three hours for the afternoon bridge club? "Even though there's been a revolution," says instructor Anne Grossman, a part owner of the Pennington Jazzercise Center, "we women have been taught that you don't waste time. You have to tell yourself that you're going to do something productive like exercise. A lot of women come because they want to look better. They stay to socialize."
On a weekday morning out on Route 31, between Pets of Pennington and Party Things!, the Jazzercise center is alive and humming. Driving everything from BMWs to Toyota pickups, women arrive for class with coffee mugs in hand. The class is a mix of violin teachers, novelists, horse breeders and substitute teachers who range in age from 20 to 60. Some drop off preschool children at the center's nursery; others gather in small groups to discuss someone's vacation tan and the pros and cons of buying a car for a 17-year-old.
During the pulse-raising half-hour aerobic section of the class, there is only time for a quick "How's everything going with your (new baby, surgery, divorce, job, novel, college student)?" When the women settle to the floor to stretch tired muscles and rest racing hearts, however, the informal club comes to order.
Husbands are a favorite topic. A fiftyish front-row regular complains that her husband does the grocery shopping (the most hated activity) every Saturday morning but says that he buys all the wrong stuff. She has to go back to the market all week long. The women agree: husbands don't know how to shop.