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Malcolm's Vision

ron.mackey

ron.mackey

Oct. 14, 2001, 2:52 a.m. (Message 27880)

> 
> PS
> I have a vision of men lining up down one side of the room in single file,
> with women on the other side. When the next dance is announced the bottom
> man takes the bottom lady up to the top of the room and so on, so that it is
> only when they meet that they find out who their partner is! Providing their
> are slightly different numbers of men and women you should always get a
> different partner - if there were more people present than could fit on the
> dance floor then those not dancing would be next in line for the next
> dance - as well as ensuring different partners it would mean people dancing
> in different parts of the room; With multiple lines the first couple would
> go to the top of one line / the next couple to the top of the next and so
> on. If people wanted a rest they would just not join the line. I'm not too
> clear whether we would a) let women join the men's line or b) let them
> change sex during the evening if we did? I can see problems in making it
> work, but I wonder if they are insurmountable.
> 

	Hi, 
		Following Malcolm's letter and the humorous letters re certain 
Australian gentlemen a connection was made in my memory.
  I wish to assure my readers that there is no ill intent in this 
story and it is absolutely true !!
	In the very early 50's I used to attend a local church club where we 
played table-tennis and did a little social dancing. In fact it is 
the place where, on a certain Friday, I did my first SCD. However, 
one of the regular attenders was a very nice, quiet, well-mannered 
Irishman who dropped a bombshell one night when he announced that he 
was moving out to Australia to work on the railway.
	He went, and after about nine months we got our first letter from 
him. He explained that after about three months training he had been 
sent out to a small town where he had spent some time settling in. 
	Just prior to writing the letter he felt he knew the ropes well 
enough to attend the fortnightly dance.   He described the hall as 
having cloakrooms on either side of the entry, beyond those was a 
kitchen on one side and a bar on the other both opening into the main 
hall.	The band was at the far end and the ladies sat in a row at that 
end while the men lined up near the bar with their pints close to 
hand. When the next dance was announced, all the men marched down the 
room and claimed a partner.
   After watching for a while and having caused some consternation by 
asking for a half pint of beer ( ! ) he thought he would take the 
plunge.  	He selected a lady who seemed a nice dancer (he was very 
good) he had his first dance and then escorted the lady back to her 
seat, said 'thank you' and turned to rejoin the men.
	What an error.   The thing to do was to abandon your partner on 
the last chord and head back to the important part of the evening - 
the beer. All the men were standing with their jaws dropped and eyes 
popping and beer half way hoisted while he red-facedly made his 
lonely way back up the hall.
	As he said, in the language of the day, 'they must have thought I 
was some kind of poofter!'
   	Ring any bells Mates? :)

	I'm sure it is the kind of thing that never happened at SCD dances 
there or anywhere else?  Or will someone prove me wrong?? :)
	
Cheers,  Ron   :)

 < 0   Ron Mackey,(Purveyor of Pat's Party Pieces)
  'O>  Mottingham, 
  /#\  London. UK.
   l>
xxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Pia Walker

Pia Walker

Oct. 14, 2001, 12:39 p.m. (Message 27886, in reply to message 27880)

Hi

As many of you already know, I have a scottish husband, who doesn't dance
SCD - the reason being, that in his primary school years, at PE time, a
certain PE-teacher, line the boys up along one side of the hall, and the
girls along the other side of the hall, and then asked the boys to select a
partner - and my husband, always ended up with 'larger than life-Louise' -
my dear husband now only dances at weddings and ceidlidhs -while I now dance
with his former PE-teacher - a source of constant amusement in this family.

We used to have the same approach in my ball-room dancing classes when I was
a kid on the  first day of dancing of the new term - and the chosen one was
the one you danced with that year or more.  Well, as you can imagine - a lot
of politicking when on prior to the first day of dancing - between parents
(read mothers) - and very proud was my mama when the best dancer of the boys
came and bowed to me - only to be told my myself, that I had already
selected my partner - a girl!   I don't think my mother or this boy spoke to
me for days :>)

It just goes to show - dance doesn't change.  If pre-booking is a problem,
why not introduce a version of ladies choice, or a stranger's choice - where
you have to dance with someone you don't know - you might even enjoy it. :>)

Pia

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