Barn Dance 2007

Barn Dance – Courtesy of Caterpillar at their social club 10th August.

What is an achievement?

A good turn out?  Yes, that helps, 88 adults and 12 children ensured a very successful evening, after expenses we raised £684.75 including the raffle.  Thank you to all who supported us.

Raffle profit?  Yes, we had some lovely prizes and realised £146.00.

Good food? There was certainly plenty to go at – comment was made on the portion of the desserts – but it seemed no one volunteered to share one!  They all “manfully” struggled to clear the decks.

A licensed bar – well yes, a good drink helps – barn dancing is certainly thirsty work – our thanks to a very kind steward and stewardess.

The venue itself was lovely – it was a beautiful evening, the patio doors were open, the children could go outside and have their own little dance when those inside were galloping about like things possessed.

Good fun?  Yes, everyone was eager to dance right from the start – the adage there’s no fool like an old fool isn’t strictly true as those of lighter years proved. 

There were lots of different dances, one involved a “nine pin”. As the name suggests it was like skittles”. The object being that four couples danced around a lonely male in the middle trying to knock him down in the process.  During the dance he partnered all the females in turn whilst their male partners went to the centre – in the end all the men were in the middle – joining hands (it’s allowed at a dance!) they danced around until the music stopped when they quickly found one of the ladies to partner again and the one that was left went into the centre to become the “nine pin” and the dance began again.  (Are you following this so far?  You can see the problems we had!) At the end of the dance the “nine-pin” left in the centre had to perform a solitary dance to the music – which was “The Stripper” – this is a church website so suffice it to say that words failed most of us – we were rolling around laughing!

As mentioned there were children present so our callers Colin and Margaret Tristram did a dance just for them.  Two mums were at the head of two lines one being “Thomas” and the other “Mrs. Thomas”.  As suggested they were like trains making arches, going over bridges – fond parents looked on with pride and took photos.  At the end of their little dance, the rest of us were told to join in.  Much laughter and galloping about again ensued.

The achievement of the night?  We managed to complete a dance designed for
5 – 6 year olds!  Perhaps next time we can try the grown up ones again!