Dancing

Our kids are growing up.

Austin is getting ready for the “Spring Formal” coming up this weekend. This was the reason he bought a new tie with his own money, and why Deanne was teaching him how to iron his own shirt last night! Austin is going to this dance with a group of good friends—and I am proud of him.

Here’s some background on my view of dancing and how far I’ve come. In the 1970′s it was generally not acceptable for Quaker kids to dance. Things were beginning to change, but it was definitely taboo for my parents generation. My dad said the only time he ever danced was when he hit his thumb with a hammer! They weren’t too thrilled with the idea of any of their four boys going to dances. I was OK with that (being scared of girls anyway) …until I got asked by one!

I was a senior, and a girl in my health class invited me to dance the Maypole Dance with her. I had not ever really dated, so this was new for me. I accepted. We wouldn’t really be touching, anyway, right? Well, THEN she got selected to be a princess! NOW I would be required to DANCE with her! The first dance, you know…waltzing…with the queen and all the other princesses and their dates…while everyone else watched? (Pretty scary for a kid who was selected as the “shyest” of his class, and who, in P.E. at Newberg High School instead of dancing lessons, played ping-pong. (Probably with another quaker kid—I don’t remember who!) So Jennifer taught me how to dance the waltz. Private lessons. It was really fun, and scary too…but it was great! And so was the actual dance.