TheBanyanTree: DANCING WITH FATHER

[Sharon Mack]

Carolyn also stirred memories for me but of a different nature.  It was her paragraph about dancing with her Dad that brought back the following memories:

DANCING WITH FATHER

When I was a little girl, my father was still in the military.  He used to take my mother and I to the officers' club every Sunday afternoon for lunch.  They would always have music and dancing in the large, hardwood floored room.  I first remember dancing on his shoes and then later, after he taught me the steps dancing with him on my own two feet.  I loved the two-step, but I especially loved the polkas.  I loved twirling round and round and then parading up the center of the floor arms about each other, my father leaning down low so he could put his arm around me.  

My mother always dressed me in ruffles and lace for these occasions.  My hair was curled just right with ribbons and bows adorning my head.  Everyone thought I was just the cutest thing to be dancing with my handsome father and I could hear their whispers as we whisked by.  I could see their admiring smiles. 

I remember cocktail parties and dances with officers and their wives at our home, as I grew older.  Before the guests would arrive my mother would put on the dance music and dance with my father.  When they were finished, it was my turn.  It was as special then as it had been when I was little.  My younger sister took a turn, too, and my three brothers laughed and danced the jitterbug with each other.  We heard the music and the laughter long after we had been sent to bed.

In my teen years, as was so typical of my generation; I did not do well by my father.  It was a shame, because he loved me dearly and I wasted so much time being stupidly angry at only those things that an adolescent can be angry at, things that in later years meant nothing at all*.but I danced!  And so did my sister.  We danced all of the dances of the day and we were, I must say, very good.  We danced from the jitterbug in the late 50's and the twist in the early 60's, right up through the disco days.  What fun we had!

After I had children of my own (I was 20 when I had my first child), I finally let all the silly, angry things go.  Daddy didn't dance so much anymore and neither did I, but we resumed our loving relationship.  Every once in awhile, my mother would bring up the memory of the dancing in the officer's club.  We loved to remember it.  It eventually got passed down to my children and now to my grandchildren.

My father has since passed away but I love these memories more than anything and always smile at the remembering.