Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019 – Barn Dance at Malabar Farms

Such a busy day yesterday, Hubby and I relaxed most of the day, though we chatted with a number of neighbors that stopped by during the day. I learned from one of them that Malabar Farms was having their “Heritage Day Festival” this weekend, and that there was going to be a Barn Dance with Square dancing tonight! I used to be a big square dancer in my youth, and I always enjoyed it, but I haven’t been in decades! Hubby decided he would come with me and people watch while I went dancing. So after a light dinner we got dressed up in our country best and headed over the Malabar. Though they didn’t have a shuttle service from the parking lot to the barn, we managed to get a volunteer from the foundation folks who were serving refreshments to get out his van and drive Hubby down to the barn where the dance was being held. We stood in a long line (well, I stood while Hubby sat on a bench until I got close to the door, as it was very busy, more so than usual because of the festival. I found out later they had over 350 people there! We found a good spot for Hubby, and then proceeded to start trying to find my way into a square, harder to do when you’re on your own, but eventually I got a spot, but it was playing the man’s role. After the first dance, I decided that changing genders was just too much to expect since I was already rusty, and I found a young man to take my place. I sat out the rest of that square, but when they started to form another one, I managed to get hooked up to an older fellow that apparently works on the farm, about the size of a jockey, but he was a very good dancer and was able to keep the square straight even when we had a lot of newbies. Some of the moves I had never seen before, so it’s obviously not the classical square dancing I’m used to, and someone said that it was a hybrid with Western style, whatever that means. I had trouble hearing the female caller over the music, and she did a lot more singing than calling, which I’m not used to, but I still have a great time. Whenever the band took a break, they had a recorder playing other music that got a bunch of line dancers on the floor, though I didn’t participate in that. Not a big fan of line dancing. Last time I line-danced was at Gilleys in Texas, and it all pales after that! Anyway, we had a good time, stayed until the dance ended at 10:00, then had our volunteer shuttle us back to the truck. A great time was had by all!

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