My Passion

My Passion is Square Dancing

            No account of my life stories would truly reflect my days here in earth without mentioning my passion for square dancing, which has been such a big part of my life these last thirty or so years.

            I grew up in an environment and at a time when there were certain things that nice girls didn’t do. Alas, anything with the word dancing in it was at the top of the list. Naturally, in secret, my friends and I formed chorus lines and sang:“We are the girls of the burlesque follies. We can shake our tra-la-la-les. We don’t dance and we don’t chew and we don’t go with the boys that do.”

            In my high school freshman year, our girls Physical Education teacher said she wanted to teach something besides volleyball, basketball, and tumbling. “I want you to learn good exercises,” she announced, “ones you can enjoy all your life.” For six weeks we had a short course in dancing – square dancing, the waltz, the two-step, and the polka. I thought it was great fun. Then the town fathers heard about it and ordered our teacher to stop. I couldn’t see that I had done anything sinful, of course, and I resented those old foggies saying it would lead me to a life of sin and disgrace.

            I have wanted to square dance ever since I took those classes in high school P. E. class, but it wasn’t until September 1979 that Robert and I took lessons with a group of friends from church. We danced for a few short months before our divorce. After that, I was too devastated to do much of anything for a several years. And, of course, I had no partner.

            When I met the engineer who became my business partner, I asked him if he’d consider learning to square dance. I got a definite, “no.” I argued it would be good aerobic activity and would be a welcome change from our long work days, but it was no use. Every time I mentioned it, he said the same.

We’d been married thirteen years when I moved out from Houston to our new home on Lake Livingston where I continued my work as co-owner of our company. There were two very active square dance clubs in the area, so I told my spouse I was going back to square dancing and was planning to take lessons the next September. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll take them with you.” For about five years, throughout lessons and weekly Friday night dances, we danced while he complained. Occasionally, I urged him to quit since he didn’t like it, but he said he preferred to stay and complain. We learned about a hundred calls in square dancing and went on to take plus lessons. He learned the steps quickly, but he had no sense of rhythm and merely walked through the steps at his own pace.

One night I noticed him humming to the music as we promenaded around the circle. Another day he smiled and joked about the many traditions associated with square dancing. After all, it had been around since early pioneer days. We both laughed at the tutu costumes and the quaint customs associated with dancing, especially the custom of saying thank you to each person at the beginning of the tip and at the end of the tip. While we all giggled and said “thank you, thank you, thank you” at the end of the tip, he added, “Thank goodness” under his breath. Then one day I heard him tell a neighbor he ought to take up square dancing, that he’d enjoy it.

            For the next seven or eight years, we went to workshops and special dances around the area and since we loved to travel in our RV, we joined the Camping Squares. As we became more skilled, we traveled to the Valley for a couple of weeks each winter and square danced several times a day with the Winter Texans and also did some country & western dancing. I especially liked it when we occasionally slipped across the border with our square dance friends to drink frozen Margaritas or go shopping. By then, there were about sixteen couples of us from our Boots & Babes Square Dance in Livingston who traveled to the Valley each winter.

            Another place I particularly liked was Fun Valley, Colorado. For several years, we traveled there with a group each fall and danced three times a day. We came home exhilarated from the dancing and the mountain hikes and sight-seeing. Even more important, the most reluctant square dancer that ever promenaded around a circle was now a dedicated dancer. To this day, he continues to travel to some of the same places to square dance.

            When I moved to the Austin area, I put on my tutu and my dancing shoes and joined the square dancers here. Some people ask if I met my current husband on the square dance floor, but I actually met him at church. I joke about our first meeting. “I’m Jackie,” I said, “and would you like to learn to square dance?” He would. He did. And he learned to dance faster and better than anyone I have ever known.

Bob and I took Plus DBD (dance by definition) lessons, and now we dance once every week at our local Sundancer club.

Not only is square dancing mentally challenging to learn, but it is a great aerobic activity where you meet a lot of nice people who rapidly become your friends. In square dance parley, “A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.” Indeed, I have square dance friends throughout the state of Texas, plus a few other states and foreign countries.

My daughter-in-law laughs at my enthusiasm for square dancing and calls me a square dance evangelist because I have recruited so many students. I’ll be square dancing until the day I die “the Lord willing and the creek don’t rise,” as my mother used to say.