The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69816   Message #1187296
Posted By: Jerry Rasmussen
17-May-04 - 12:44 PM
Thread Name: May I Have This Dance?
Subject: BS: May I Have This Dance?
Last night, my wife and I went to a 45th wedding Anniversary celebration of friends of ours. At one point in the celebration, the mc asked all the married couples to get up on the floor for a dance competition. My wife and I were sitting with our friends, Joe who sings bass in the Gospel Messengers, and his wife Corrie. Joe and I kinda rolled our eyes, because neither of us are good dancers, but we led our wives out onto the floor. They had a great band there, and the female singer launched into a very soulful version of At Last, and my wife and I just beamed. That song, by Etta James, is one of our favories, and it was one of the songs we danced to at our wedding six years ago.

As the dance went on, the mc started asking the couples who had been married the shortest amount of time to sit down. He started with those who'd been married less than five years, then ten (and my wife and I sat down.) When he got up to 46 years, our friends who were celebrating their anniversary sat down and finally, the only couple dancing (with a spotlight on them) were Joe and Corrie. When the mc asked how long they'd been married, Joe said 56 years. As they continued dancing, the spotlight followed them around the floor, and I was out there taking pictures.

Remembering last night, I think of the song May I Have This Dance For The Rest Of My life by Anne Murray. And I think of my parents. I only saw my father dance with my mother twice in my life. Once, on video, and once at their 65th wedding anniversary. My father wasn't the romantic type, and when he wanted to learn to dance in his younger days, he drove to a neighboring town to take lessons anonymously, so none of his drinking buddies would know.

If you're not a romantic, then this thread is not for you. In my parent's generation, most of the men I knew weren't much for dancing and had to be dragged on to the floor by their wives. Almost at gunpoint. And I feel sorry for them, for all that they missed. I wrote a song many years ago for the lavender haired widows with the following verse:

"Where are the men who can find their contentment
In a livingroom waltz or a walk by the sea
Who still know the meaning of now and forever
And a love that can last through eternity"

Did your parents dance? Do you? I mean the slow dancing that is so romantic. It seems to be a vanishing art.

Too bad.

Still romantic after all these years

Jerry