On Friday, April 19, 2024 Single Trees held our Tax Woes dance with Craig Abercrombie calling and cueing.  Craig always chooses great music we love to dance to and keeps up a good pace for our dancers.  He has to come a super long way too but always seems fresh and eager to call for us.  Thank you, Craig.

 

We had a fairly good turnout with help from members of  our sister club, the Whirl-A-Ways.  Some of our members drive a long way too.  Tammy Polinsky and her husband drive from Woodburn, almost an hour and a half north of us on I-5.  We appreciate seeing them dance with us.  Some people are truly dedicated dancers!  There were three squares of shabby hobos on the floor part of the night who enjoyed the hobo stew provided by our president and vice president and some members.  A good time was had by all.

 

That night we had our annual election of officers and we now have a new president Melba Walker (she is not new to being president, however, as she was president back in 1990 when she was brand new to square dancing).  May you have a successful year, Melba.   

 

Here are some photos of the last square standing at the end of the night.  Also there is one of our long time member Judy Melendrez who won split the pot while she was busy counting up the ballots.  She is one lucky gal.

 

 

We are looking forward to our next dance Friday, April 26 "Under The Big Top" with K.C. Curtis calling and Christina Corelli cueing. We always enjoy dancing to these two. What will Joy and her sister Melba come up with for decorations?  It may be spectacular.  Come join us and see.

 

Gaynor Hintz

Club reporter

 

 

 

Last night March 22, 2024 Single Trees had another really fun dance with Darrell Kalmbach calling and Jackie Gale cueing. We were delighted to have them both, especially Jackie as we have missed her fine cueing so much! Darrell, knowing we had a couple of newly graduated dancers on the floor really did a great job of cueing each step of the calls so they would be able to follow well. Everyone tried to be of good help too. Since it was a spring themed dance with Easter just one week off, Darrell used a lot of gospel tunes to call to. His wife, Erin, was there too to help fill out squares when necessary. So fun to have them both.

Jackie’s husband Bill was on hand too to help a lot of us single gals have a partner for the rounds. While we do get used to dancing by ourselves, it is of course so nice to have a partner. Now if we could only get more guys to take up round dancing!

We had guest come once again from Roseburg's Buckeroos and Lebanon’s Square Circlers. They helped to fill out the four on the floor that we had a great deal of the night. We are so grateful for all the guests who come join us to make the dancing that much more fun.

Our president, Joy Pitts, and our vice president, Melba Walker, did a superlative job of making our dining and kitchen area look festive for spring wth loads of Easter bunnies and eggs of all sorts. Kudos to them both.

Our next dances in April will be the Tax Troubles and Woes—Hobo Stew Dance April 19, and Under The Big Top on April 26. The first one will be called and cued by Craig Abercrombie and the second will be called by K.C. Curtis and cued by Christina Corelli. Both dances should be well attended and provide all the good dancing anyone could want. They are sure to be decorated to the hilt. Please come dance with us whenever you can or are in the vicinity..

Gaynor Hintz

Club Reporter

 

 Wow!  Did we have fun at our 3rd Friday dance last night, March 15 at our square dance hall on 20th and Yolanda.  The Shamrock Shindig with a potato bar was a fabulous success with four squares on the floor dancing most of the evening--right up until the last square.

We had a really great visitation from the Buckeroos of Roseburg along with some from further south in Medford, there to support their caller, Phil Ramey of Phil-Billy fame. He did a fine job of calling and chose some really good music including that oldie but goodie, "The Cowboy Rides Away".  Sandy Harris did the cueing for us and also chose some well loved and known songs for us to dance to.

 

It was a great night of dancing for everybody, and we hope they all come back to see us soon.  Meanwhile we shall have to plan a visit to Roseburg's barn to get our banner back since they brought enough people to steal it!  What fun.

 

Thank you everybody for participating and bringing the fun here to Springfield. 

 

The last seven photos were taken by Melba Walker and most show people enjoying the baked potato feed provided last night by our club members.  They also show that our visitors and members really got into the theme of the dance!

You can see from the photos that this photographer had no time to take photos of the squares as I was dancing the whole evening.  My thanks to Ron Gates who stepped back from our square to catch a photo of the whole floor (all four squares) before the music started.

Next Friday on the 22nd we will have Darrell Kalmbach calling and our own Jackie Gale back to cue for us.  Please come join us.

Update to March Dances:

3/15/24    Phill Ramey, calling and Sandy Harris, cueing --    Shamrock Shindig  (wear some green!) 7:30 Plus, 7:45 pre-rounds and 8-10 mainstream with every 3rd tip plus

3/22/24    Darrell Kalmbach, calling and Jackie Gale, cueing --  Spring Dance  - 7:30 plus, 7:45 pre-rounds, 8-10 mainstream with every 4rd tip plus

Last Friday night Feb. 23 Single Trees hosted a mainstream dance called by K.C. Curtis and cued by Sandy Harris.  The theme was Chinese New Year's and some did wear their Chinese attire.  The hall was decorated very nicely as always by Melba Walker and her sister Joy Pitts, our President.

 

K.C. called a well-paced dance with excellent choice of music that well suited his wonderful baritone voice.  We love his voice and his calling and are happy that he came through chemo so well.  We hope to see him on our schedule often.  Sandy did a nice job of cueing.    We had three squares on the floor and a number of round dancers in the big ring.  What a fun dance it was!  We're looking forward to having the new dancers who just graduated out on the floor to join us.

 

In March on the 15th, we will have Phil Ramey up from Medford area calling with Sandy Harris cueing.  On the 22nd we will dance to Bruce Lowther and Jackie Gale who is returning to cue for us after a winter hiatus.  Please come join us at our large dance hall on Yolanda and 20th in Springfield.  Hard to believe we once had dancers who filled the dance floor but at least we are still dancing since we own our own hall and have wonderful renters to keep us afloat.

 

Next week at 6:30 on Wednesday March 6,  Single Trees and our sister club the Whirl-A-Ways will meet separately to discuss merging and afterwards  take a vote.  Anyone interested could come and hear to hear the discussion, but only club members will be able to vote of course.

 

Gaynor Hintz

Club Reporter 

Sweetheart of a 60th Birthday Dance

On Friday, Feb. 16, 2024 Single Trees celebrated our 60th birthday in high style.  We had five squares on the floor at one time at least, with more dancers and friends visiting while watching the dancing or eating in the dining area.  

 

Dale Roberson who called for us from 1986 to 1996 during our boom years came up from Sutherlin with his wife Betty and two members of his family to help us celebrate.  While he did not call a tip for us, he stayed and talked with al the dancers who had once had the pleasure of dancing to his calling on a regular basis twice a month.

Besides this treat, we had a long time former member and former president of Single Trees, Florence Mulvihill, come to visit.  She is no longer dancing but it was a pleasure to see her.   Roseburg Buckeroos came with about a square of dancers.  Whirl-Aways, our sister club at the hall, had many dancers there to enjoy the festivities and dance the night away.

 

Melba Walker and Joy Pitts, our vice president and president, did a great job hosting the dance and decorating beforehand.  

 

It was a night to remember for sure.  Craig Abercromie called and cued the dance for us and did an outstanding job.  We love his calling and his positive attitude.

Here are some photos.  I hope I got a good representation of everyone who came.

 

Next week we will have K.C. Curtis back to call for us. Sandy Harris will do the cueing.  This should be a good dance as well.  Please come and join us.

It's our

60th birthday

Feb. 16, 2024!

Please come

join us!

 

 

We just learned today that our long time Life Time member, Angie Barta, passed away recently.  She first joined Single Trees in 1969 and danced with us for a very long time until she began to have knee problems, eventually requiring surgery.  Over the years she served on the board in many capacities and along with her life partner Alan Pritchard she represented Single Trees as area representatives for many years.  Even after she could no longer dance she attended our dances to help our Treasurer Joy Pitts on the front desk while Alan came to set up the break bar.  They were both invaluable, hard-working members.  Here are a few photos of her along with Alan and others

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 Hi, all.  

Single Trees had their new dancer dance in January but did not dance the next weekend because we were visited by a huge ice storm which kept people at home for over five days, left many without power for over a week, caused terrible damage to our fine trees especially to the east of Eugene in Springfield.

 

This past weekend Jan. 26- 28 we did not dance in this area as our Mid-Winter Festival was taking place up in Albany at the fairgrounds.  A few Single Trees were in attendance including those who also belong to Whirl-A-Ways, Larry Reetz and Connie Seamans who were there in official capacities helping the Mid-Winter committee .  Those who were there the whole weekend or at least for all day Saturday were: Joy Pitts, President, Melba Walker, Vice President, Paul Hash, Diana Hodges, Gaynor Hintz, Chris Vanderlinde.  There may have been more but I did not see them.

 

I danced the whole time in the Advanced Hall which had from 4 to 6 squares dancing to the featured callers, Jet Roberts amd Scott B3ennett, our own Randy Dibble and Scott Zinser from Oregon, and Ray Brendzy from Canada.  With such a line-up it wasn't any wonder we had six squares at times.  Overall, I just heard there were 802 registered for the festival.  This number is up from last year so it bodes well for the future.  I saw many younger people on the floor which also bodes well.

 

I had a terrific time and hope to go again next year.

Here are a few photos I took while resting on the sidelines in the Advanced Hall.

It was sad not to see Ian Craig calling for us this year.  He passed away suddenly earlier in January.  We were lucky to get Ray Brendzy to fill in his slots on the schedule.  But Ian will be greatly missed because he was the caller for the Silverton teen club along with Leonard Snodgrass who also passed away suddenly a while ago.

Gaynor Hintz

Club Reporter
 

EEAC New Year's Eve Dance

 Quite a few Single Trees attended the New year's Eve dance at the hall hosted by Roger Putzler and Christina Corelli and the rest of the CCCA callers and cuers who came from near and far.  dancers from Whirl-A-Ways, Spin cycle Squares and Single Trees were joined by lots of guests from out of town.  There were six squares on the floor to kick off the night with many more sitting and chatting with one another.  The hall was decorated even  more with sparkling garland, party hats, noise makers and poppers provided by Roger and Christina.  It was so exciting to enter the hall and see so many round dancers on the floor for pre-rounds.  Of course since the parking lot was so full we knew there would be lots of dancers inside.  

 

Roger and Christina did a fine job of calling and cueing as they always do.  They were joined by other CCCA callers and cuers.  There was a lot of food on the break bar and sparkling cider was on hand to toast in the new year using Chicago time at 10PM which was the time the dance was slated to end.  However, Roger wanted to do one more tip to ring in the new year properly.  What a fun time!  It has been awhile since we have seen six squares on the floor.  Let's hope this bodes well for the future of square dancing in our area.