I Miss Being a DANCIN' Fool

Dusk at the Waterpark Harbor in Charleston, SC , young children dancing in the water behind me.

I have had moments lately, that I think on times when I was young  , and then times that I had 3 times as much energy and utter abandon , than I do now..and then I recalled that I used to be a dancing FOOL. 
I freely admit it, and only people that knew me when I was in my late teens and very early 20's know this about me. And now my blogging buddies.
I used to go out dancing, and this was in the disco times, so it dates me right there. For you whipper-snappers that were born in the 70's or later, it was NOT like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

 No one looked like this with their arm raised in the air. No one ever raised their arm in the air. There was the revolving mirrored ball..

There was loud dancing music from the Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine band ( yuch ), Gloria Gaynor, The Commodores, Earth  Wind & Fire , Sister Sledge... too many to name.
Anyway,
I would go out dancing...and do not think I was a total hedonist ( probably 3/4ths was easily ) , I would go dancing...it is really now embarrassing to admit...about 4-6 times a week , for about 4-6 hours at a time !!!
I did also work and go to school, but school was secondary to me, and that showed in my grades back then. But that's another story.
Back to dancing,
I had my dancing boyfriends ,  and one who I loved dancing with , he was blonde, handsome...a little shy...his name was Rick, he was older , by about 8 years , and we would dance usually for an hour without a break. Then take a break, get a drink, smile at each other...and rush back out dancing. We would go back up, usually there were small platforms that everyone squeezed up on, or large stages, or just flat dance floors...and dance for hours again.
Is that funny now or what ?!!

 I do recall seeing some guys who acted like they were dancing gods or kings  out there. They were interesting, but I never went for that ego-monster type.
I just liked fellow dancing fools like myself.


We did not look like this...

Though she is lovely up there. I mostly wore tight jeans, as all the girls did, and I had long, long hair down the base of my back. Never wore it up then , always down like young women do today. Very few of the young women wore dresses, hardly ever...well , sometimes in the Summer we wore sundresses. I was not in New York discos either, just clubs and discotheques around town for the college crowd mainly.
The guys usually had jeans or khakis on , and usually had some sort of cologne on. I remember that now.

Probably to cover up the smell of sweat after dancing with us dancing fool women for hours !
I also remember I turned into a bit of a dance snob as I only danced with guys that were good dancers, or decent dancers at least. No just-learning with- no- rhythm dancing men allowed in my dancing fool circle.

 If I had to pick a favorite song , from back then...it would be a tie between " It's Rainin' Men " by the Weather Girls  or " I will Survive " by Gloria Gaynor. Anything I could dance to, I liked . I had to be moving and I had these, shown below..
pretty bad,

Happy feet , moving and dancing almost every night. I married a man that does not dance, is fine as a slow dancer , but not anything over that.
So I had to say ' Goodbye' to my dancing boyfriends, when I got married at 20.
This is the kind of dancing that I would love to learn now...

The Tango !


I asked my oldest daughter a few years ago, what would she remember about me the most when I was her mom, when she was young ? Thinking I may hear that I was a smoochy-huggy mom, or good at listening or something. You know what she told me ? She goes , " I will always remember you liked to dance around the house. "
That really made me smile, as I have not done that in so many years I can't even recall.
Bummer.
I feel like I have lost my rhythm, so out of practice...to be a dancing fool takes some sort of giddy practicing you know.
I do think dancing has to be felt in the heart , then it travels to our feet and makes them happy.
I hope you think of something in your past that made you so happy today, dancing ( especially with your children ) , writing , reading, fishing, boating, etc. Hopefully you can have it resurface and bring some joy back into your life.


Be a blessing to someone today , look for a small way to do so,
Gina




To Every Thing There is a Season - Ecclesiastes 3. 1-8

  "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ..."