I just wanted to say a little bit about the highlight of the square dancing winter for myself and many others here in the Northwest.
I was there at the Lin County Fairgrounds from Thursday evening for the Trails End Dance through Saturday night. I did not go on Sunday as there was no advanced being offered and my legs and feet had had enough.
In
times past we used to have loads of dancers from our home club up in
Albany dancing, but this year not so many: Larry Reetz, Linda
Neushwander were the first I saw, Joy Pitts was there with her niece,
Janet, who called, and Janet's fiance, John Olson, all of whom worked
hard on the used clothing they submitted for sale on behalf of the
hall,, Connie Seamans working for the EEAC, Chris Vanderlinde, who was
in charge of the Trails End dance, Patrick Welborn and his wife Mika,
there for the weekend of dancing, and me. I heard that Janice Sugar was
there both Friday and Saturday and Paul Hash and Diana Hodges came on
Saturday. Also Ross Isobel came with his friend Sharon. So we had a
good representation there but not like it used to be. If I missed
anyone my aoologies.
It appears the numbers are on the rebound for MWF. When I first started dancing in 1985, we had over 5,000 in attendance, but nowadays we are lucky to get 1,000 and often far fewer than that especially since COVID. But the halls were fuller than I have seen in recent years so I am hopeful we will hear that the festival made a good profit and money will be there to fund next year's event. According to Connie Seamans who informed me last night Na. 27, only five or six more ribbons were sold than last year. Well, at least we are holding ou own, but it would have been nice to see over 900-1000 dancers there. Oh, well, maybe next year.
We had a lot of great callers and I believe people enjoyed the featured caller, Jaden Frigo, who was from Australia and has called all over the world. We also got to dance to some of our favorite callers like Randy Dibble and Scott Zinser. So much fun.
In February Single Trees will celebrate its 61st birthday on Feb. 14. Please come dance to Shaun McKamey and Christina Corelli. There will be birthday cake and ice cream too, I'm sure. Plus starts at 7:30 followed by pre-rounds and then mainstream at 8.
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Gaynor Hintz
Club Reporter
