Sunday, August 30, 2015

The bestest date ever

Four and a half years ago Vicky and I met at a dance at the Deer Lagoon Grange.  I'll bet only a small percentage of people even know what a grange is anymore.   The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry was a fraternal organization, like the Elks and Moose, devoted to husbandry.

I also wonder what percentage of people know what "husbandry" is.  It's not the early 19th century version of match.com or the Dating Game.  Instead, it refers to the practice of agriculture.

Anyway, on Whidbey Island, and in many other places, the Grange Halls are still standing.  These days, though, they are used for many other purposes besides husbandry.

One event at the Deer Lagoon Grange was dances.  There used to be a number of them held there when I first moved here, but now there are none.  The dancing "scene" on Whidbey Island basically dried up and blew away.  But not before Vicky and I met at a dance there.

Vicky and I have danced in many places in the USA--Death Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, New Orleans, Disneyworld, the Everglades, etc.  One of our favorites was a dance cruise that left Ellliot Bay in Seattle.  But that too, dried up and blew away so to speak.

So this year Vicky surprised me by renting the Grange Hall just for the two of us.

We danced in the afternoon, went to dinner, and then danced in the evening.  One particularly nice part of the Grange Hall is that it is a place where we can waltz.  Waltz is a dance that requires a lot of room, more room than our great room in our house.  But usually one has to dodge a lot of traffic at a real dance.  Not so when you are the only couple on the dance floor.

We had a wonderful time.