Hip to be Square…Dancing

Day #2

So we went square dancing Saturday night.

Of course we had to pose by our construction hole.

I haven’t been square dancing since elementary school.

Monte NEVER had been.

Apparently, square dancing was not in the elementary P.E. curriculum in south Florida like it was in Indiana.

And Ohio.

Four couples squeezed into our car along with a picnic dinner and we drove to what felt like Canada.

Malabar Farms is a state park and working farm that is just beautiful.

We had to eat super quick standing up in the parking lot because the dancing started right at 7:00.

Admission was a whopping $1.00 per person.

We need to leave the city limits more often!

We walked in to a VERY crowded barn and started dancing almost immediately 

before I even had a chance to go to the bathroom.

The “caller” was this very helpful lady who got all the squares organized and kept people doing what they were supposed to be doing.

She looked just like someone I went to high school with.

She even pointed out what you were doing wrong and which direction you should be doing it.

All from the stage in the back of the barn and over a microphone.

She sang with a live band comprised of an upright bass, a fiddle and a keyboard. There may have been a guitar in there somewhere.

I barely had time to look around and observe my surroundings.

Check out those rafters!

Square dancing is fast and completely dependent on everyone doing what they are supposed to do.

It’s a team sport.

There’s no room or time for hot dogs or nimrods.

I don’t think I have to explain why I know that.

It took our group FOREVER to get some of the moves.

One friend pointed out that I had a very intense look on my face.

I wanted to get the moves down.

I wanted to win.

At square dancing.

 There was so much lingo.

We had a “first couple" that started each new dance for our square.

This was Sumita and Mark for our square.

Mark told us LATER that he used to be a square dance “caller” in high school.

I seriously would’ve asked him to take the stage (and the microphone from the nice lady) 

and show us some "promenade with your partner" and "dosie-doeing" with the band.

Every dance worked around the square sometimes with each couple taking a turn, sometimes with the first couple starting the dance and then doing it with each couple around the square.

We had corner partners, opposite partners and swing your partners.

So much to laugh about in this picture.

 Then the caller had a little fun with us and had the guys dance with the guys. 

So much more to laugh at in this picture.

We’d been dancing almost an hour when Monte leaned in to me and said,

“If you listen to the woman singing, 

she is telling us what to do next!”

Like he’d just had a fresh word of revelation.

I had to explain to him that’s why she was the “caller”.

It was much more of a workout than I expected.

And not just because of all the belly laughing.

But not nearly as much as if we’d been the first couple.

I felt sorry for Sumita and Mark when the dance required a lot of spinning (or swinging as the “caller” well, called it).

At one point we thought the “caller” said,

“Balance to your partner.”

We all looked at each other confused until someone went into full Karate Kid pose.

Balancing.

Every time the “caller” said,

“Balance to your partner."

We did the Karate Kid pose.

By the time we figured out she was saying, 

“Bow to your partner,”

the damage had been done and the pose had stuck.

Me and Monte.
He’s either starting or finishing “balancing to his partner."

It was HOT in that barn with all of the people and the dancing and such.

The hotter it got the more the smells of the barn’s history seeped out.

Awwww…and it reminded me of home.

Not my home in Ohio.

My home in Indiana.

Or rather my hometown.

I didn’t grow up in a barn.

Although, that would’ve been AWESOME.

I can’t wait to square dance again.

With even more people.

Although, why drive over an hour when we have someone with “caller” experience right in our midst?

Now, if we can just find someone with a barn…

Here is our night in a very fast nutshell.