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Flippo flips
Marshall Flippo still packs 'em in at the once-a-year dance last night at the square dance center. The guy has been calling here since the mid 1950s...my former dance partner (she doesn't dance anymore at age 82) tells me of his youthful days when he had a full head of curly brown hair. I just can't IMAGINE that, since he hasn't had hair since I first danced to him sometime in the late 80s.
There were over 100 folks that showed for the dance, including a number of his groupies from out of state. Long gone are the days when the entire hall would be full with 25-30 squares, but this was a respectable 12+ squares. Larada gave a glowing little speech to him about his years of calling here...I know a lot of more recent dancers have no idea that he helped in the building of the 'new' ASDC in 1977.
He's very fun-loving in his calling style, and readily admits that he's never considered himself a singer. I think 60 years of smoking did that to him (although he theoretically quit again about 6 months ago). But he does have a certain pizazz that even at 80+ he hasn't lost, and his twangy accent is endearing rather than annoying. He told a story about his recording himself as a young caller on WIRE recorders, before tape recorders were in use....Danny has one of those, so I was one of the few that understood what he was talking about.
I'm HOPING that I'm not slowing down too much in my dancing abilities. After I collected monies at the door, I was able to dance 2 of his Plus tips and the final Advanced Star tip. The Plus seemed VERY clip-timed to me, and it was a rush-rush to get through sequences. He gauged the floor right, though...it was not a strong floor, so he only imbedded a FEW Plus calls in at standard position, but had his usual plethora of clever basic getouts that both Kris and I love to 'research."
The tween-tips were 2 rounds cued by Wayne Galdony, who is also an amiable guy I've known for 20 years, but there is so little interaction between square dancers and round dancers that it always feels like two different dances going on. I usually like to dance some of the rounds, but since I had my Treasurer hat on didn't get to this time.
We booked Marshall again for next Feb 10 for his annual dance...looking forward to it!
There were over 100 folks that showed for the dance, including a number of his groupies from out of state. Long gone are the days when the entire hall would be full with 25-30 squares, but this was a respectable 12+ squares. Larada gave a glowing little speech to him about his years of calling here...I know a lot of more recent dancers have no idea that he helped in the building of the 'new' ASDC in 1977.
He's very fun-loving in his calling style, and readily admits that he's never considered himself a singer. I think 60 years of smoking did that to him (although he theoretically quit again about 6 months ago). But he does have a certain pizazz that even at 80+ he hasn't lost, and his twangy accent is endearing rather than annoying. He told a story about his recording himself as a young caller on WIRE recorders, before tape recorders were in use....Danny has one of those, so I was one of the few that understood what he was talking about.
I'm HOPING that I'm not slowing down too much in my dancing abilities. After I collected monies at the door, I was able to dance 2 of his Plus tips and the final Advanced Star tip. The Plus seemed VERY clip-timed to me, and it was a rush-rush to get through sequences. He gauged the floor right, though...it was not a strong floor, so he only imbedded a FEW Plus calls in at standard position, but had his usual plethora of clever basic getouts that both Kris and I love to 'research."
The tween-tips were 2 rounds cued by Wayne Galdony, who is also an amiable guy I've known for 20 years, but there is so little interaction between square dancers and round dancers that it always feels like two different dances going on. I usually like to dance some of the rounds, but since I had my Treasurer hat on didn't get to this time.
We booked Marshall again for next Feb 10 for his annual dance...looking forward to it!