Sunday Scribbling - "Dance"

Santa Animations provided by MySpaceAnimations.com

I have loved dancing ever since I was a little girl. It started with watching that curly haired angel, Shirley Temple. I still watch her with my personal VCR collection...no snickering! ;) You could set the clock by where you could find me on a Saturday afternoon as a pre-teen. Sitting in front of the boob tube watching the cool moves found on American Bandstand followed by Soul train. My mom jumped on my love of dancing by rushing me down to the local dance studio before I grew out of the phase and into boys.

My teacher was beautiful and graceful even at 7 months pregnant. I fell in love with ballet but mom added tap and acrobatics. Tap made a cool noise but I was not feeling the Shirley Temple vibe and summarily dropped it. Acrobatics was the worst, I hated it, but mom made me see it through for awhile longer. The headaches began right away until my teacher realized I was holding my breath through every trick. Try as I might I kept doing it, so the teacher had to convince my mom that Jazz would be more my style. I hated that I flunked somersaults! I did the recitals and fairs around the county each year and enjoyed it all. The costumes and dances made my heart race, especially ballet, but boys won out in the end. I was really good, but when it was decided I should have private lessons, I knew it would rob me of other things and so I declined. Nope, mom was not too pleased.

I never stopped dancing so after all the lessons I discovered cheerleading. I got the best of both worlds, dance and boys. Ok, so maybe cheerleading is not really dancing but who cares I was having a blast! I went to a private Catholic High School and you know what they say about those private school girls. "They can dance!" " What were you thinking?" Disco was in full bloom back in the late 70's and after I graduated every weekend was about dancing. Picturing my ex in angel flights, silk open shirts and platforms makes me hurl now, then not so much. My hair was three times the size of my face so I can't remember what I wore but I'm thinking leather mini skirt.

My children could dance before they could walk and we danced a lot. They did the lesson thing for awhile but freestyle was their thing. My youngest danced in her room, door closed, incessantly. It pulled her through her awkward times at school but no one knew how good she really was. My grandson TK has watched his mama dance behind closed doors for two years now. He turns two on December 29th and the Christmas before his birth, Dave, Jess and I danced with careless abandon to hurry TK into the world. It was one of those spontaneous moments you never forget.

You probably think I've hung up my dancing shoes for a walker, you would be so wrong. I dance romantically with Dave by the firelight. Trust me you would not want to see my Dave dance by the light of day to his country tunes. It reminds me of that movie "Deliverance." LOL I dance with my TK and he thinks I rock! He has that gramy dance gene and some unique moves. Grampy is trying to get him to do the one foot stomp and we all say in unison "TK noooo." I may have to be careful getting my groove on but seeing the love and laughter in my family's eyes when I dance still makes my heart race.