Dancing The Night Away

I guess we all have our little quirks. After all, it is what makes life interesting.

For instance, I love to write. Yet, I have some friends who have a problem composing a simple letter to a friend. There are some that can’t get the knack for taking pictures. They just hate trying to figure out all the buttons on a camera. I have friends who excel at picture taking. Their photos are phenomenal. I have friends who can dance like professionals and some like me, who struggle to get my feet coordinated with my brain.

A few years ago, I joined what began as an exercise class bordering on aerobics. I immediately fell in love with the variety of songs to which we danced. Our instructor quickly realized that I wasn’t the only one in the class who enjoyed the music. Without saying a word, he incorporated our exercises with dancing and now we do more dancing than aerobics. That’s absolutely fine with me but when I try to put the steps in my head into my feet at 8:00 in the morning, my feet seem to lack cooperation. I muddle through the dances. But, yes, I do get through them and have fun doing so.

As for photography, it’s one of my passions. I am nowhere near being a professional, but some of my photos aren’t bad, either. I am also not a professional dancer or a writer who makes a small fortune with my stories (how I wish that would happen!). Most of what I do are hobbies that keep me from being a couch potato doing nothing else but watching TV. I have a friend who recently said how bored she was. Honestly, I have no idea how anyone can be bored. There aren’t enough hours in each day for the things I enjoy doing.

I joined our local fishing club 22 years ago, and immediately volunteered to be a board member. The only position available at that time was Social Director. My job was to organize parties, and other events to keep our members as interested as the fishing did. One of the highlights of our events was our annual Christmas party. It was such a thrill watching people have fun and dancing to a DJ or band that I hired for that night.

After six years of preparing, organizing, and overseeing all the annual events, I decided to hand the reigns to someone else and move onto a different position on the board.

Through the years, very few Social Directors stayed more than two years. The position only required one year but very often, once you begin, it’s difficult to stop. If I had to be completely honest, I got hooked. I absolutely loved the planning and overseeing each event. However, after six years, enough was enough.

Each Social Director chose the venue for our parties according to the availability and cost of each. The owners of each facility often raised the prices without warning and what might cost $29.00 per person in 2001, might cost $35.00 per person in 2002. But I still felt it was time for me to retire from Social Director and move on.

Even though I was no longer in charge of the social events, I still attended them. There was still so much fun to be had and the position at the time of Social Director afforded me the privilege of getting to know so many of our members. Attending the events felt more like attending a party with friends. It was and is a fantastic time each year.

As the Social Director, I never attended a function without carrying my camera. I knew whatever photos the Fishing Club Board of Directors chose to keep would always be a reminder of their past events and good times everyone enjoyed.

One year stands out as truly memorable but good or bad would be determined by whose ever photo I’d taken.

For instance, John! There is a certain cocktail he truly enjoys. Yes, they are delicious but also very potent. Unfortunately for John, he had two before our dinner was served. When dinner was served, he started on his third drink. As he was finishing his dinner, he was also finishing his fourth drink. All of us noticed his eyes weren’t focusing as they should. His wife said a bit loudly, “OH John! I warned you about that drink!”

He mentioned he needed to use the men’s room. Two of the men at our table, had to help John to and from the men’s room. Once at the table, his wife made sure he drank nothing else but coffee all night.

Another friend, insisted on dancing with all the men she knew. No, she wasn’t flirting with any of them. She knew them personally and also knew that the men loved to dance, and their wives didn’t. as she approached each wife, she’d point to the woman’s husband and say, “So, can I borrow him for a few minutes?” Each wife, eagerly said, “Be my guest!”

It was those kinds of people who made each even interesting. We were all friends with our own quirks.

And then there was Rosie. Rose always dressed impeccably for each even, however, when it came to any event that had dancing, she’d wear open back shoes which she would immediately kick off once she stepped on the dance floor. She hated dancing in shoes. She said, “I am more comfortable in bare feet.”

So, as I walked around that last night as Social Director, I captured an image of John being helped to and from the men’s room, Beth as she danced with almost a new partner for each dance, El bartering one red bottle of wine for a bottle of white wine, and so on.

I even got a photo of Rosie’s feet and tossed aside shoes as she was Barefootin’ to the beat of the music.