Shall we Dance?

Oh. Yes! Let's Dance!!

Mom and I were outside today admiring the early Spring weather and enjoying the warmth... when the neighbors music catches our ears and is so uplifting and cheery-- it compells us to dance. Yup. Right there in the open yard! Since they play fiddle (Aaron actually constructed it himself!) and all manner of other stringed instruments (their Mom plays the stand-up Bass)- it's not a loud stereo kind of noise! They were actually playing a catchy little beat that seemed just right for a do-si-do and a turn or two! So.. we did! And, enjoyed it greatly!

That's not the first time I've felt like dancing this week!

Kim just insisted that I order "Shall We Dance" since the DVD released this week. Oh- I'm glad she did! I absolutely LOVE the music in it- "Sway" and so many others! I've felt like doing the waltz and the jitterbug ever since! After having watched it-- twice or three times (I can't remember how many, actually) I sashayed over to Mom's to share a few of the really good scenes with her... and she got to remembering Mae's fond dance memories...

Well- who would have thunk it! But, my Grandmother's were BOTH quite the dancers! Even tho neither of my grandfathers were! The way I know this about my Grandmom, Nancy, is because one long road trip through Texas and all the "home" towns of my anscestors.. we crossed a bridge over the Sabine river (that one river has always run through my life- but, that's another story) and Dad commented that THAT bridge and THAT area of the river was where G-mom used to go with her friends to go dancing! I can only imagine them piling up in the old T-models and hauling their portable phonographs and going to the river to dance! I'll betcha she was light on her feet, too!

Mae's dancing happened while she was Dean of Women at the college in Magnolia. Seems as if one of the men proffesors didn't mind in the least that she was not only a married woman and a mother-- but, since they were having a dance and he needed a faculty partner-- he chose Mae! She said he was the smoothest dancer she ever saw and made her look like all she was doing was floating! Considering that it was the Waltz that they were performing and that Mae's posture and composure are most dignified and errect- I can well imagine that she WOWED the students and well carried off this image if he was really that great of a dancer!! I think it was a little later in the evening that the President of the college thought it was undignified for her as a matron and as dean of women to be such a "spectacle"... but, I'm sure if Mae was participating- it was all on the up and up. She did say she enjoyed it immensely and understanding that my grandfather was crippled and would never be able to be her partner-- she just took the opportuntity as it was there and probably considered that President a pompous old stuffed shirt!

Ohhhhh... to think of all the dance numbers my Dad has played and my mom always had to sit out. Can't very well dance with your partner if he's the one behind the music stand! Not that he'd want to dance anyway-- but, he has square danced.. so, I know he can! My father-in-law also has a dance past. The story goes that when he was around 40 he got inspired to take Ball Room Dancing. Drove all the way into to Little Rock for lessons at Arthur Murray studios! Now, that I would have LOVED to have seen! Or gone with him! Makes me wish I had enough left in these legs to do so... in the meantime- I'll be content to just sway with the beat and watch from the sidelines...

unless..... someone should ask... "Shall we Dance?"!