The great dance

Chuck at the grill

      Sheila is famous for her parties and Chuck is renowned for  his barbecue, so I was really looking forward to the shindig for Sheila's big birthday.  I heard rumors: Chuck had cleaned out the garage to make a dance space.  There would be a contest for the best present that symbolized what a person needed to thrive after age 60.

Sheila's pond

     We arrived armed with a garden troll and a cartoon book called  Great Sex after 50 and other Lies  of Old Age.  Chuck was in serious barbecue mode on the deck.  The youngsters were playing croquet on the lawn of Sheila's upper garden.  Sheila was showing off the arbor that her son Max had built for her.   Max's mother-in-law was holding court with her teenage grandsons, watching the ducks on the pond.  The three guest dogs studiously ignored each other and stayed calm in spite of the crowd.

Sheila and the Graces

   We sat with Sheila's brother Dennis, up from Eugene, to eat the best ribs  I have ever tasted.  I tried to sort out who was who and how they were related.  Sheila collects people and enfolds them into her life.  Once, when I asked her how a young man  came into her circle,  she ended the story with "Yes, that's Jeff.  He's one of mine." (As a birthday present, Jeff helped Max make the arbor for Sheila's Cecile Brunner roses.)

Opening gag gifts

Judy in the arbor

   As it grew dark, the dancing began.  The fluid graceful  hippies who had met at a Bollywood dance party, the young women with their stylized moves, the old women, all of us were eager for whatever beat the DJ provided.  Max's father-in-law  danced for three solid hours, keeping up with three young men.  "John sure enjoys his grandsons, " said Sheila.  Chuck wove in  and out of the dancers, keeping time on a wooden gourd,  handing out tambourines and shaking eggs.  At one point,  the seventeen-year old who could mimic Michael Jackson was paired with Sheila's middle-aged upstairs neighbor.
    Since I first got a clue that dancing was about more than happy exercise, I have felt awkward at best on the dance floor.  I have become accustomed to sitting out the great dance between men and women.   But at Sheila's party I rocked with the best of them.  When the DJ finally played a slow number, my lady Judy and I swayed to the music, holding each other close.