When I was very little my town had a centennial celebration. Women sewed pioneer type clothing for their family members, men grew beards for contests, and many events ad contests took place.
One night they closed off the one street which went clear through town for a dance. Everyone was supposed to wear their “Little House On The Prairie” clothes. There were fiddles and guitars and a caller. Being about two or three I didn’t much get what was going on. There were some type of oil lamps which were black balls and looked like the bombs seen in old cartoons. While my parents danced, I was off to the side in my tiny long dress and bonnet with other rugrats doing that twitch your shoulders and bend a little forward sort of at the rhythm of the music dance. My next experience was tap, ballet, gymnastics lessons at age ten maybe.
It was only a year, and then the young teachers got a studio in another town. Watching my classmates let me see the difference between stiff jerking and actually moving with the music. I later worked on practicing moves at home with that awkward jerking in mind. I didn’t dance in public until I was seventeen and went to a bar that didn’t card pretty girls. I had a roommate who taught me disco moves, and when we went to the bar she let me borrow her boyfriend to practice my new moves. My Navy days is when I really cut loose and danced most every weekend.
There are many cool memories associated with that. My mock strip tease, my husband dancing with a guy who was just as crazy, hitting my head on the disco light, and so much more.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.