Dancing

 
Around the age of 10 my mother saw my interest in music and tried to help by sending me for tap dance lessons. I saw myself dancing like "Jose Greco" although I never knew that his dance was Flamenco and not Tap. I don't remember why I didn't continue with tap dancing but I either gave up because I was the only boy in the class or it was because we moved.

However, by the age of 16 I had taken a new interest in dance. It was the age of 45 RPM records with slow, romantic music by Andy Williams and Johnny Mathis and energetic rock-n-roll by Elvis Presley and The Big Bopper. House parties were popular where parents' had "finished basements" but I liked the Saturday night dances at Alt Park pavilion. At Alt Park there was always a band. A strip of 10 dance tickets cost $1 and I got 5 dances for my 10 tickets. In those days the girls didn't pay but there was a thing we called "respect." Ladies didn't feel "obligated" and we didn't feel "entitled." Coca Cola was the popular drink and "getting lucky" meant the girl went with you to the top floor of the pavilion to gaze up at the stars or out across the Ohio river to see the city lights of Covington, Kentucky.

The Jitterbug, Lindy Hop, Pony Time and the Twist were some of the popular dances that I liked but there were other dances too. We had the Mashed Potatoes, Wahtusi, Nitty-Gritty, Loco-motion, and the Hand Jive. Some of these dances died out as fast as they came in but dancing required moves and steps. Modern generations simply jump up and down and call it dancing. Good dancers dance like they have a purpose. They fluff out their feathers and dance a little two-step like the elegant Crane, the amorous Mourning Dove or the spontaneous Mockingbird attracting a mate. My early attempts at the Lindy Hop and Jitterbug were a little clumsy so I sought some advice from my uncle who was the lady’s man of the family. With a slight chuckle his advice to me was "just keep the girl spinning." It actually worked.

I was shy and never had many dates during my teen years but I was a good dancer. I had rhythm, etiquette, and smooth moves. I never tried those over-the-head Lifts for two reasons; I had no formal dance instructions and I never met a girl who knew how to do Lifts. But if I had the right partner I could do some amazing Dips. I did have one "special" girls for awhile and I took her to Moonlight Gardens. Moonlight Gardens was at Coney Island in Cincinnati and was known for the big bands like Paul Whiteman. We were doing the Jitterbug when shwe and another female dance "locked high-heels." It was like separating two deer that had locked horns but I saved the night.

At 21 I was stationed at Plattsburgh AFB and when I was off duty at night, I was a regular at Brody's Night Club where I was considered the "Limbo champion." The Limbo craze didn't last much longer than the popularity of Chubby Checker's Limbo Rock in night clubs but it remained popular on beaches like the Jersey Shore. After I got married, I didn't dance again until my divorce.

 
One night after Arlene and I were separated I went to a night club in Marlton, NJ, It was a popular nightclub that always had music for dancing and featred live bands on the weekends. It might have been a weekday night because I remember that the nightclub was kind of quiet. But a cute gal with a Dorthy Hamal hairdo was being asked to dance. I noticed she was a very good dancer and outdancing her suiters. I asked her for a dance, we danced and eventually became great dance partners and lovers. Dancing with Barbara I began to take ballroom dancing seriously again. She had great Jitterbug steps and I changed my Lindy Hop steps to Jitterbug. basis.

Since we both loved dancing we went to see the movie Saturday Night Fever. The music and dancing inspired us to start dancing Disco. We choreographed many great Disco moves. Some from the movie, some from other dancers and some we made up but they were all very artful and smooth. There were a lot of Spins and Turns in Disco. Barbara was very good at Spotting. I began to use the two-minute chorus of Ring My Bell to show off how long she could spin. But not the entire chorus. That would get boring.

With Barbara, I perfected some "signature moves." I could kneel on one knee while she circled around me. I could go backwards on the floor (an old limbo move) while she danced over the top of me. I could Dip her flat to the floor, kiss her below her neck and rise back up into a dramatic spinning finish. And, I could kneel on one knee and dip her backwards over my other knee. Sometimes we would follow that Dip by repeating it on the other side. Barbara could always add a little extra flair to her Dips with a high kick in the air. These moves were smooth and romantic and performing any combination of them often resulted in a round of applause even from other dancers.

The bands loved us for being the first couple on the dance floor and getting the party started. Once we went to the Playboy Club< in Vernon, NJ for a we4ekend of skiing. As the band began to play after dinner on Saturday night they announed "Okay. Where are our dancers Barbara and Charlie?" Although Disco had become our forte In addition to Disco I still had my moves from younger days of doing the Twist and we had developed a great jitterbug as well. We were well known at our favorite clubs, even being called Fred and Ginger by our friends at Mama Ventura's. Sometime we even won bottles of wine or champagne fpr our dancing.

It was a sad time for me when the "down with Disco" craze came about. The Disco era had been great fun with its glittering mirror ball and lighted dance floors. It is said that on July 12, 1979, Disco died when a vengeful Chicago deejay named Steve Dahl arranged Disco Demolition Night at a Chicago White Sox double-header at Comiskey Park. Fans who brought disco records to the game could get in for 98 cents. But mahem resulted from his stunt of blowing up crates filled with more than 1,000 disco records as 60,000 fans chanted "Disco sucks! Disco sucks!" The detonation ripped a hole in the outfield, players ran for cover, drunk fans threw their disco records at each other, jumped the fences, stole the bases, toppled the batting cages, and tore up the infield. The White Sox had to forfeit the second game but another nail was hammered into Disco's coffin.

Disco night clubs began closing one after another. But the Disco ball remained popular and the music never really did die. "Free-style" dancing took over for awhile but the music changed and dancing became jumping up and down on a crowded dance floor. Sometimes Disco music would emerge and most people on the dance floor didn't even know it was "Disco music!" Jumpimg up and down on a crowded dance floor had replaced the beautiful moves of partner dancing and an era of artful dancing ended.

When Bob and Joe came to live with me coupled with losing my management career in the JCPenney layoff that saw them get out of the appliance business, another era ended for me. My relationship with Barbara began to dwindle as I had started over selling Real Esrate. In 1984 I began dating Joyce who had been a client. Joyce liked to dance but she had two young daughters and our relationship became more about family than about dancing. After Joyce ditched me for a wealthy married man, I met Marcia. We met at a local nightclub in 1988 and began dating but Marcia was not a dancer. I had just started a new career in computer programming and moved from Haddonfield to Blackwood, New Jersey to be close to work. Marcia and I had a good relationship and I was close to her family. We even adopted a beautiful greyhound that looked like a young deer.

Then, by 1991 my job in programming was not paying what I was worth. Instead of giving me the raise I had asked for, the company hired another programmer and gave him one of my clients. I decided it was time to move on to better pay and more respect for the talent I had demonstrated. I soon received an outstanding offer from Larmon Photo in Abington, PA. They operated in Pick and Prime and it was an opportunity to expand my knowledge. I took the job but it was a one-hour commute each way. Eventually, Marcia was encouraging me to move closer to work. I moved to Abington Township, PA but now it was a one-hour drive to see Marcia. For some odd reason, she told me to find someone in Pennsylvania and ended our relationship. I believed she was starting to see an old former boyfriend. So, for the next two years developing PICK software, learning HTML and developing some internet software. For fun I began playing pool at a great little tavern in Jenkintown, PA where I made several new friends.

It's not easy finding a good dance partner but I've been lucky to have met four wonderful dancers. Sometime in April of 1993 I went to a singles night at the Blue Bell Inn in Blue Bell, PA. There was a band and plenty of room for dancing although there was no dance floor. It was fun to start dancing again and I met Betty. She was a good dancer. We soon began dating and became well known at Blue Bell for our dancing. Betty Stein and I dated for five years and at the age of 58, I wanted to settle down into a serious relationship. However, Betty was a widow and did not want a serious relationship. She "only wanted her Bud," as she would often refer to her late husband. I was never welcome to see her during the week, I could never stay past 7:00 P.M. on Sunday, and she refused to budge on her convictions. It was not what I was looking for in a relationship.

One lonely night in January of 1998 I went back to Blue Bell's Tuesday night singles dance. I met a charming lady who loved to dance. Shanez was married but, while her husband played poker every Tuesday night, she went dancing. We began to meet at Blue Bell every Tuesday and eventually became very good dance partners and friends. Shanez dressed fashionably and had a flair about her that made her attractive to anyone watching her. Once I invited my son Joe to come and watch us dance. He came to the Blue Bell and Shanez was very impressed by him. She had a customer at her beauty salon, a young lady whom she thought would be perfect for Joe. She arranged for them to meet and on October 9, 1999 Joe and Patricia were married. Shanez was at Joe's wedding but he requested that we pretend not to know each other. We were seated separately and we didn't dance. I was deeply hurt that they could not understand our relationship as friends and dance partners.

Shanez and I began dancing two or three nights a week and I even became a friend of her family. We developed some great Disco routines and she could knock some of my signature moves out-of-the-park. We had many friends and admirers at the night clubs where we danced. In March of 2002 Shanez asked if I wanted to join her on a vacation to Acapulco, Mexico. I was a little hesitant because I had been warned about the water and getting sick in Mexico, and Shanez and I were not lovers in any sense of the word but I decided to make the trip anyway. We shared a room, separate beds and remained properly dressed in each other's presence; pajamas and bathrobes. I have to admit that she was the strict one. Not me. But I respected her and her marriage.

Mexico was amazing. The restaurants, entertainment, nightclubs, and dancing were the most fabulous I've ever seen. Best of all, one night we won the Salsa dance contest. The next morning we discovered that we had won a few "fans" who loved our dancing and who wanted to meet us and get a picture with us. However, I did get sick in Mexico and had no desire to ever go back. Shanez and I remained friends until I moved to Arizona in 2007.

 
It took ten years after Betty but in 2008 I finally found the perfect lady; the perfect dance partner and the perfect partner to share my life. Joan and I met on April 5, 2008 and became good friends, terrific dance partners and lovers! In 2009 we took a transatlantic cruise and danced our way across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. It was the beginning of many dance cruises. On that cruise we participated in the Guest Dance Showcase dancing to the hot, rhythmic Disco beat of Donna Summer's Last Dance.

While I was living in Mesa, Joan and I often went dancing at Anna's at the Arizona Golf Resort. After I moved to Anthem with Joan, we danced many Friday nights to some great bands during the club's happy hours. Come Back Buddy was a favorite and we have followed them for nearly fifteen years now. We always enjoyed the club's New Year's Eve celebrations especially when they were formal nights.

In 2009 we decided to try a transatlantic Dance Cruise on the Crystal ship Serenity. Joan had cruised with Crystal Cruises once before on their ship Harmony with dance hosts, instructors and great music. On this cruise we we met dance instructors Curtis Collins and Beverly Durand and Charlie 2009 and danced our way across the Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon, Portugal to Miami, Florida. Over time we would eventually sail on six cruises with Curtis and Beverly.

Our third cruise was on Crystal Symphony with the Glen Miller Orchestra. There were four dance instructors on this cruise, Elena and Aleksandr Belousov and siblings Patricia Kent and Adam Kent. In all, we have taken twelve Crystal Cruises. We have been on three cruises with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Today, the Orchestra is still going strong under the leader Terry Myers, who is not a trombonist like Tommy, Warren Covington or Buddy Rich but plays clarinet and saxophone like Jimmy Dorsey. We have enjoyed not only their music but also the company of Terry and his lovely wife Linda, singer Bryan Anthony with his spectacular renditions of Frank Sinatra as well as trombonist Will Nestler and singer and Michelle Amato. Will and Michelle got engaged on one of our cruises and are now married.

Not all of our cruises were Big Band Cruises but dancing is always on the itinerary on Crystal and we have gotten to know many wonderful dancers, instructors, entertainers and band members. On each Dance Cruise there has been a "Guest Showcase." Joan and I have participated in most of them and have videos of three of our performances. Use the External Link "Personal Website »" from the Index to see all the photos and videos of our wonderful Crystal Cruises. You can watch our showcase dances on YouTube including our Hustle, Cha-Cha-Cha and Swing dances.

In 2020 we had scheduled a cruise from Barcelona, Spain to Quebec City, Canada. It was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The panic over this pandemic remains a mystery to me. Claim after claim lost its credibility. Everyone was required to wear a mask because there were millions of "asymptomatic" people who were spreading the disease, who had no symptoms, were not sick and possibly would never get sick. That claim, and those people, disappeared like an early morning fog over a pond with the dawn of the vaccine.

By 2021 everyone was being required to get vaccinated against COVID-19. As the numbers of vaccinated people grew to more than 60%, it didn't reduce the number of new infections or the number of deaths. The new claim was that the disease was now a disease of the unvaccinated. That claim could not be scientifically correct without an exponential growth in the contageousness and fatality of the disease among the 40% of unvaccinated people. As expected, that claim became unfounded and another new claim emerged. The vaccine didn't prevent catching COVID-19. It simply reduced the symptoms. So now, no one could guarantee that one would not catch COVID after being vaccinated or assure there would never be a severe reaction to anyone from the vaccine.

By 2022 it got even better. Unvaccunated people became barred from many activities and especially cruises. In addition, the most illogical and unexplainable response to COVID-19 was that "vaccinated people had to be affraid of unvaccinated people." Every vacccinated, double and triple vaccinated persron I know personally, has had a bout with Covid. But not unvaccinated ME!