Published: April 16, 2008 10:18 am         

Dancing with grandpa a great experience

Commentary by Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



I did the most interesting thing this past weekend. I went buck dancing with my grandpa.

My grandpa lives in Haleyville and he has been asking me to come buck dance with him for more than a year now.

My sister and I decided to make it a date. If you don’t know where Haleyville is, it is about an hour-and-a-half drive northwest. If you do get lost, it is closer to a two-and-a-half-hour drive.

Obviously, we took a few wrong turns, but we eventually ended up meeting with grandpa. I think he was a little upset that we had ran him late, but he did a good job of hiding it.

Buck dancing is a favorite past time of grandpa and he wanted to share this joy with us. Little did we know how much joy it would be.

We took two of our girlfriends with us and left the kids and the husbands at home. This usually ensures a good time to be had by all. We were decked out in cowboy hats and boots and looking to dance the night away.

When we arrived at the dance hall (A.K.A. senior center) we weren’t shocked at all by what we found. There was a small table set up at the door with refreshments and coffee, for a good price of course. There were two disco balls spinning around, the music was live and the dancers were going at it.

We started out a little shy because none of us had even been to a dance, so we knew we would be the odd balls. We weren’t just odd balls because we weren’t dancers, we were also the youngest people there by about 40 years. This also ensured a good time to be had by all.

There is no threat when four married women are surrounded by senior citizens and their grandpa, so we were able to just have a good time.

The first dance they did was the country line dance, and oddly enough, this was the only dance that any of us knew. We got right out there and acted like we danced all the time.

But the next song brought about occurrences that we never expected. It was a slower song, maybe one you would do the two-step to. None of us had ever two-stepped, so we sat that one out.

However, these men wouldn’t hear of it. One by one “the Gardendale girls” were picked off the chairs and into the dance floor. I think I broke a few men’s toes, but they didn’t seem to mind. We laughed more than we danced.

I don’t know why, but even though they were years and years older than me, I still felt the need to introduce myself as a married woman. Later on, I found this amusing because most of them were with their wives at the dance.

Because of a pulled muscle, my grandpa didn’t get to dance much, but when he made an appearance, he made a lasting impression. He is a great dancer and he holds nothing back.

When the night wound down and we had danced every dance, we had video evidence of all of our crazy dancing and laughing.

We vowed to watch and edit before any outsiders saw how bad our dancing really was. All in all, it was one of the most fun nights of my life. Thanks, grandpa.