Dancing

I'm the black sheep of the family. I'm the little Baptist girl that learned to adore dancing. My first experience with dance was with my daddy at our house on 1122. He taught me to waltz. 1-2-3, 1-2-3. 

 I adored it! Another early experience with dance was at a Bluebird sleepover at a friend's house. Her daddy taught us to jitterbug. (Thanks Danny)

Then there was the big middle school talent night. Me and five other girls got together. They choreographed a dance to Elton Johns' Crocodile Rock. I was really too introverted at the time to be up there, but I did it. I still remember most of that dance! That's 40 years!

Little Baptist girl has no opportunities to dance, to fly. Flash forward high school and a crazy gym teacher that had us do yoga one semester and square dance the next. I actually enjoyed it, though some of it was dorky. We worked our way up from called dances that anyone could learn to do to the Virginia Reel. I was paired with Gaye Drake for that dance. The music started....and we just took off! No thought involved. We just knew what to do. The teacher was so impressed we had to split up and try to show all the others what we were doing.

I only went to two dances in all of high school. No steady boyfriends, no one I wanted to go with usually. Though they were nice guys, they weren't natural dancers. And I felt lost on the floor with them.

Fast-forward to college orientation at SFA. What do you think they had planned for the mixer? Square dance! I was the only one in our set who knew what she was doing, leading the way.

Occasionally I went to a club in college and danced. But that was usually just disappointing.

When I came home from college, The Palace was in it's hey day. I started going. And I found there were fellows there that knew what they were doing....that knew how to lead! Urban Cowboy had started a two step craze. But I did it all.....from YMCA, to the waltz.

A young man who had been a class or two behind me in high school and won “best dancer” superlative and I teamed up several times just to dance the night away.

Then one New Year's eve I met Pete. He danced with me while Glenn and Connie played. But he didn't dance. It takes a lot of cajoling to get him to even dance me around the house. If I could change one thing about my hubby....that would be it.

There is nothing so romantic as twirling and swaying with a man you truly love on a wooden floor with low lights and fans twirling above your head.

Now, I dance by myself in my kitchen. I dance babies around. Times change and that's how it should be, I reckon.

What about you? Did you ever love to dance? Tell me about it!