Able-Bodied Dancers Toss the Salad, Shake Their Tail Feathers

My side hurts. Actually, I hurt all over. These sore muscles are ones I haven’t used in a while but I really used them yesterday.
We had a big group over for a cookout and to see some friends visiting from out of town. I enlisted some able bodies (as it turned out, some able dancers) to help me in the kitchen.
As we started tossing the salad and getting out the silverware, plates, and napkins, Colleen said, “We need some music.” She put on a Supremes tape and before Diana Ross sang the second “Baby live, I Need your love” we were rocking and rolling around the refrigerator.
Cousin Molly then fast forwarded the tape to “Stop In The Name of Love” so she, Colleen, and Andrea could do their “Supremes on stage” performance.
This song was followed by another tune, and the strength of the kitchen floor was tested when we all tried to out wiggle each other.
I was partners with Molly who then cut in on her mother, Pat, who was peeling an avocado, slicing mushrooms and shaking her tail feathers all at once.
Then I was partners with Johnny, Mike, a late arriving guest and then her husband. And I finally I was dancing with a pot holder (by the way, I was drinking ice water.)
When we had exhausted the Sixties sound, another guest ran to the car to get her Pointer Sisters tape and we continued the impromptu sock hop (although, most of use were barefooted and in bathing suits, it is a good thing no one was there with a camera) until the bratwursts and sausages were grilled.
As you can tell, I’m a kitchen dancer, also a laundry room dancer, and a car dancer. Colleen gave me the Supremes tape for my car so I could be-bop through traffic.
Sometimes I even like to dance in the grocery store. I think my visiting niece, Julie, was a bit startled when I started to tango with her in the cereal aisle to the tune of Henando’s Hideaway but she didn’t pretend that she didn’t know me. She figured she was a long way from home and no one knew her.
It doesn’t seem like I get to dance much on occasions when dancing is customarily done, such as at weddings or dinner dances. I have trouble finding a dancing partner. If I use the proper persuasion I can get the husband on the dance floor for a spin or tow.
What’s the proper persuasion? Usually I say something like, “You can’t leave here and go home and get comfortable until we’ve been on the dance floor. Standing at the floor’s edge chatting with another balking husband doesn’t count.”
This tactic works once in a while if I’m lucky. If any of my kids are at the party I can dance every dance. They all love to dance – even baby Matthew. He was just bouncing up and down to the music on a T.V. commercial.
Two-year-old Pete is another guy who’s got the beat. The other day in church he was sitting on the floor fiddling with the kneeler when the choir began singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” and he stood up, took my hands and said, “Let’s dance.” That was one of the few times I’ve been inclined to decline a dance invitation.
Maureen and Machaela have put their lives to music. They frequently dress in old dance recital costumes and put on dance performances for me and anyone else they can get to watch. Maureen was really in her element when we were doing the remodeling and the scaffolding was set up in the room.
By day the carpenters pounded on it and by night Maureen performed on it. She used a hairbrush for a microphone and sang, danced, wiggled, and wondered if Patrick could videotape her and send the tape to MTV.
After last night’s kitchen production, I’m wondering if maybe we could do a mother-daughter act.
July 1, 1987