I went to the rental house today and was looking at the work completed on the counter make-over. I hopped in the truck and headed out to find nourishment. The radio was on a station that I actually listen to now rather than punching the button to change the station; it was Lin's favorite 107.1 KGSR. Willie Nelson was singing away, "Kansas City". The song somehow got me thinking of Lin and my first time to see her dance.
We had not been seeing each other for very long in terms of going out at night or dancing. She was working the night shift when we met. After one hell of a quarter end (we both worked Logistics); she suggested that we go to South Padre Island for a long weekend to recharge. It sounded great, so off we went.
We went out with Lin's friends to some little gay bar in Brownsville. Don't ask me where we were; I was totally lost. Marc and Omar drove us to this bar, and when I say little, it was little. Anyway some music, much attuned to Kansas City was playing and Lin asked me to dance. I don't know about you, but I have to have some "liquid courage" in my blood stream before I take a step onto the floor. She told me not to worry because she was a good dancer...
There were not many people on the floor, which made me even more uncomfortable. So let me set the stage. When I was much younger (yes MUCH), I was quite the dancer. I could dance polka, fast two-step, disco, you name it, I probably practiced it first while dancing along to American Bandstand, Lawrence Welk or Hee-Haw (yes, my parents MADE me watch some of those shows). Anyone who danced with me, knew that they had to give me "proper space"; never crowd a good dancer. LOL! So dancing this rock-n-roll / blues was kind of new to me. Next thing I know, Lin is dirty dancing up against me! I am sure my face was turning the deepest shade of red that it could. I was starting to perspire and had yet to move an inch. She had a great big smile on her face and then a sultry kind of look. She cocked her mouth to one side and half smiled. She shimmied her shoulders from side to side in a slow motion moves and then (OMG!!) started slowly squatting right in front of me! I was sure all eyes were on us and that I would soon hear laughter. I was frozen right where I stood; I could not move a muscle, althought my jaw was probably hitting the floor about then. I was a preppy, a shy, yes shy, polite person and I did not do "that" kind of dancing in public!!
I was never so glad to see Omar in my life! He approached Lin from behind and wanted to get into "that" action; well that was my queue to RUN! Lin and Omar continued to dirty dance as I watched from the sideline with Marc. I don't think I have ever downed beers so fast in my life. Lin continued to signal to me to come join them and I pretended that I did not see her signal. If this is what she called dancing, there would not be much of that happening that night.
On occassion we would discuss "that night". I would only shake my head and sigh heavily; Lin would grin and laugh. Several years later she asked me what I meant when I would see a Caucasian person dance and say "white people dance". I told her that no matter what race, if I saw someone dance with little sense of rhythm, then to me, that was white people dancing. I told her that I had seen those move in her as well. She was appauled! Next time we went out I asked to look around the floor and tell me what she saw. She told me that there were alot of "white people" out there thinking they could dance. We laughed about that often. From time to time she would call this out when we saw others dance.
We danced quite often at home. We would turn up the stereo and Lin would ask me to help her, give her lessons so that when we did finally go dancing in public she would not "white people dance". I had great fun dancing with her; she actually got really good. We had our own steps that we made up. It was not always easy as she was much taller than I. We had fun, that is what mattered. In her latter days she was only able to last but a few steps, but we had fun.
On a totally different note - if you have roses, today is the day to trim them. The little old man down the street has a really nice nursery and he told us that today was the day, if not tomorrow. Cut them back and they should come back beautifully. Don't forget to feed them!
I guess that is on my mind because we bought three rose bushes to plant in Lin's memory, in her garden. I bought a variety that was called "George Burns" (pic included). It just reminded me of Lin and brought a smile to my face. I later read up on it and here is what it said: "Just the array of novel colors in every flower can bring a smile to your face…although maybe not as many smiles as its namesake, the late George Burns. But it’s a definite "feel-good" rose; bright cheery ever-changing colors of yellow, deep red, rose pink and cream, big fragrant ruffled flowers, large clean deep glossy green foliage and a fairly compact yet free-flowering plant. Caution, though, an occasional cheap cigar turned into the soil may be required to keep this plant at its best."
Otis Redding
You're Still My Baby
Lyrics to You're Still My Baby :( Chuck Willis )
You're gone away
And you done left me alone, yeah
I've got nobody to call my own
I believe it's bye bye, baby, yeah
I wish you a lot of luck, darling
But you're still my baby
My my my baby
Told you i love you, honey
Yes, i did
Many, many, many times again, yeah
I've always played a losing hand
But it's bye, bye, bye, baby
That's what you're telling me
I wish you a lot of luck, darling
But i'm letting you know
You're still my baby
Ooh yeah
You may be, yes you may be
A thousand miles away, yeah
No matter how far or you may be
Looking at me somewhere
Right here in this town, lord, lord
But tell me all i, all i
All i want to know, know
Tell me, tell me what did i do, honey
Why, why, why did you put me down
Darling, darling
Somebody, somebody help me
Out of all this pain
But i've always played a losing game
But it's bye bye, baby, yeah
That's what you tellin'Lots of luck, darling
But i want you to know
That you're still my baby, my baby, my baby, yeah
You're still my baby, yeah
I want you to know
No matter where you go
No matter where i see you
I want you to be my baby
No matter what in the world you do
Honey, i want you to be my baby...
[ You're Still My Baby Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
