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A demo dance at Luther Village on October 2nd turned out to be a huge success. We had four squares on the floor and many round dancers. Herb Oesterle did the calling and George & Joyce Kammerer did the cueing. The residents seemed to enjoy watching us all dance.
7/6/004
Frontier days is history for 2004. Twenty Arlington Squares members participated in serving ice cream on Friday, July 2nd from 4:30 till 11:00PM, and ten more again on Sunday morning, July 4th. The rain held off and we had a great turn out for our free dance on the tennis courts. We had seven squares dancing and many others taking a breather on the sidelines. Herb Oesterle did the calling and George and Joyce Kammerer did the cueing. A fun time was had by all.
We finished the event participating in the parade on Monday, July 5th. Eighteen club members participated and we did it in style this year with our very own float. View 4th of July Float Video
We were able to dance while moving along the entire parade route. Onlookers clapped their hands and tapped their feet as we showed them how much fun square dancing can be. Thanks to Barry Johnson for calling and thanks to Tim and Donna Cardwell for providing their vehicle and pulling the float along the parade route. Hopefully, this is the first of many events for the Arlington Squares Dancing Float.
7/3/04
Dave and Jan Dunham have now relocated to Rockford, Illinois until approximately November 1, 2004 when they will be moving into their newly built home in Belvedere. We all wish them well and hope to see them in a square soon.
6/29/04
Wow, where does the time go to. It seems like this season of dancing had just started and now our students have graduated, all the banners have been put away and we are already into our summer schedules.
Two of our member couples are now part of the elected board of MCASD. The Johnson's will fill the job of Secretary and the Cardwell's will be the Treasurers. These two couples are also active as chairperson and co-chairs of the upcoming Illinois State Square Dance Conventions.
The 2004 convention scheduled for July 30th through August 1st, 2004, at Western Illinois University in Macomb, about 75 miles west of Peoria, will be co chaired by the Johnson's, and the 2005 Convention to be held in Dekalb will be chaired by the Johnson's and co-chaired by the Cardwell's. We would love to see your support by attending these conventions. They are a lot fun with great callers and cuers.. See the official web site for more information.
Char Conrad and Stan Mosten are back to dancing after her fall in June of 2003. Great to see her dancing again.
On May 2nd, we hosted our 55th anniversary dance, Emerald Enchantment. It was a phenomenal success. Approximately 375 dancers formed squares in both the mainstream and plus halls and even more remarkable, most remained until the last tip had ended. Three lucky dancers also went home with $100 each in our split the pot raffles. Our auction items were some of the most "must have" items around, and was also a success. And Food!!! I believe that in all there was over 96 feet of food spread out for our guests. Barry and Anita reported that as the dancers left, the compliments were fantastic and we all heard from dancers for several weeks afterward about the great time they had. That is what Arlington Squares is all about. Nothing is done in half measure. Thanks to everyone.
Two weeks later on May 16th, Thirty-two members of Arlington Squares had another event. A trip through Chicago on a trolley ride and an architectural boat cruise down the river. Members listened to numerous stories of the history of several landmarks. The day was perfectly planned, sunny and informative. Thanks to Ann and Patty for the fantastic planning.
On June 1st, Arlington Squares celebrated the graduation of the ten students who have completed lessons under the watchful eye of Wally Smulson, our instructor this year. We all had a great time as our new dancers had to pass their final examination -- a written test (unscrambling call names) and three practical tests (dancing with a rope around their waist, dancing while bobbing balloons and dancing a regular tip with Tim Cardwell sitting right in the center of the square. Tim was a great sport, especially when Wally called "Head ladies center for a teacup chain". Seriously, though, it was a wonderful way to end the season of lessons and we welcome our graduates to the wonderful world of Square Dancing. The graduates this year were Candace & Craig Burton, Norm Hewitt, Linda & Tom Long, Marty McDonald, Susan & Paul Olund and Amanda & Tom Springborn.
Our banquet was held on June 11th this year at the Cotillion. Approximately 80 members were present again this year and a fun time was had by all. Howard Hoffman did the calling and the Kammerer's did the cueing. George and Joyce Kammerer also entertained us with their rendition of the "12th Street Rag".
3/10/04
Does anyone know who that caller was at lessons last night?
Could it have been our very own President, Barry Johnson?
You bet it was!
Barry filled in for Wally Smulson at lessons on Tuesday, due to Wally's conflict with parent-teacher conferences at his day job. Although it was Barry's first time calling for a group this size, he stepped up to the plate and slammed a home run.
Angels and students alike danced the hours away to the many patter and singing calls prepared for the evening. Only once, when Barry proclaimed "everyone promenade home", did half the room empty out to "go home". All in fun, of course, as we were all back for more dancing soon afterward..
Barry made the evening a fun filled and enjoyable session for all of us. He did an absolutely marvelous job and we hope to be dancing to his calling again.
Will Barry be a surprise caller at one of our Friday night dances? With a little encouragement from club members, Who Knows...........
2/13/04
Club officers were elected at the dance on Friday, February 13th. (Hopefully, none of them are suspicious and this won't set the tone for their term in office. Arlington Squares members considers this to be a very lucky day.) All executive officers were unanimously elected as follows:
President - Al and Jeanie Gain
Vice President - Terry Shaughnessy and Muriel Poore
Treasurer - Barry and Anita Johnson
Secretary - Erv and Elsie Campbell
Howard Hoffman continues to retain his optimistic outlook regarding his recovery. He's in the home stretch now with all surgeries behind him and only radiation treatments left to endure. He is occasionally calling and cuing through it all. Guess all those thoughts and prayers are working! It's always great to see Howard and Anna out and about!
1/18/04
Hope you have been enjoying the snow! Just wanted to update you on
Howard Hoffman. He has had another round of surgery and is feeling fine!
He was out and about to visit us on lessons last Tuesday. He will be cuing
for Arlington on January 23rd and calling on January 30th. Come and enjoy
the new choreography he's been working on! Wally did return from the
Bahamas (I guess he decided that our lessons are worth the snow and cold!) and
lessons have resumed. Students and angels alike are enjoying Tuesday
evenings. Come on in and check it out.
1/6/04
Hope you had a happy holidays! Arlington Squares was busy over the
holidays as usual. At Thanksgiving, Arlington Squares participated in the
Crime Stoppers Gingerbread House competition. Jeanie and Anita
managed to con some more folks into helping create a winning display of
confectionary. Rumor has it that they laugh more than they work but it
seems to get the job done. The club also decorated a tree in downtown
Arlington Heights. The club Christmas party was held on December
19th and we had a huge turnout - more than 90 dancers showed up to participate
in the festivities. The entertainment was a change this year - many
members of Arlington Squares volunteered their talents to provide a variety show
followed by Christmas caroling. It is amazing the talents that folks have
been hiding under their bushel baskets. The program committee did a
fantastic job of cajoling folks into performing! It was a wonderful party
full of good food and friendship! Thanks to all who helped make it a
success. Howard Hoffman did make his commitment to call and cue the
Yellowrocker's New Year's Eve dance. As many members of Arlington Squares
knows (since there were a ton of us there!), it was a great dance. Howard
has obviously been working on new choreography while he was laid up and had some
fantastic dancing laid on for us. It was great to see him up and about.
He was also able to attend our lessons on December 16th and do some calling with
Wally. Howard will be going in for surgery in January so keep him in your
thoughts and prayers. Lessons have been on break for a couple of weeks.
Wally has been sunning in the Bahamas but should be back to shake off the rust
on January 6th.
12/3/03
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What a fall! Sorry this note is so late, but I'll try to catch up.
In late September, our friend and club member Chuck Kopp died of heart
disease. We grieve with Joan... Not long after that, Howard
Hoffman checked into the hospital and tests showed a number of different
issues to resolve, with diabetes and prostate cancer topping the list. In
spite of all, Howard is in good spirits and absolutely determined to meet his
commitment for calling and cuing the Yellowrocker's New Years Eve dance.
We hope he does! Wally Smulson has substituted for Howard during
our lessons, and the class is going very well.
Our fall program of dances has lived up to all expectations. The Halloween
dance was big: twenty squares, with many folks in outstanding costumes.
Our "Western Night" dance was a blast, with "wanted posters" covering the walls
with people's pictures and "crimes". The nicknames were the best part...
The November barn dance was a good time, even though a cold rain fell throughout most of the day. Wally stepped in to call the dance in the hayloft, and, as the saying goes, a good time was had by all. Plans for the club Christmas Party are in good shape, and the Arlington Squares' entry into the Crimestopper's Gingerbread House competition was there. Come to the Christmas party to see it if you missed it Thanksgiving weekend! It won the "Best in Show" prize for adult groups! Arlington has also decorated a tree in the park at Campbell and Vail. Stop by to check it out when you get the chance.
9/14/03
We're off and running! Our first dance of the year went well -- we had
about 15 squares on the floor, with four clubs competing for the banner.
We've already stolen a banner or two at other clubs as well! Howard did a
fine job in his first night of lessons -- the eight students (so far -- we think
more are coming to the next lesson) were doing well and left with a smile.
8/20/03
We had a great time at the banquet in June. The food was great and the
dancing was fun. The party ended on a sad note when Char Conrad
fell and broke her hip and wrist. She is home and doing fine.
Fourth of July was a lot of fun. We had a square and some spares for the parade where we demonstrated some mini formations to the fine calling of our own Barry Johnson. The dance on the tennis courts was rained out unfortunately.
The picnic was held on August 2nd at Old School Forest Preserve. It was wonderfully organized by Tim and Donna Cardwell and Dave and Jan Dunham. Marge was able to join us for a tip or two.
The Illinois convention was held in Macomb in July. Arlington Squares had a respectable showing and a good time was had by all. The location was fantastic - all wooden floors, convenient and cool!!! Come join us next year and experience the convention.
Terry Shaughnessy is a real trooper. Despite a heart attack and surgery (angioplasty) last Wednesday, he came to the meeting for the Emerald Enchantment last night. He is looking well, just has to take it a bit easy. He will be having surgery again in a couple of weeks so keep him in your thoughts.
4/3/03
Donn Thorne passed away. Our love and prayers have been going out to
Joanne.
Last Saturday, the State Council of Illinois Square Dance Associations (SCISDA)
decided to proceed with making a bid for the 2008 National Square Dance
Convention! Arlington Squares is leading this effort to bring the world's
best square dance to the Chicago area. We'll find out in June 2004 whether
we have won the bid or not.
3/2/03
Things are going well lately. Our Valentine's Day day featured Rick
Allison -- briefly wearing a petticoat, angel wings, and a small bow and arrow.
We're sending pictures to Mary... The Rock Around the Clock
dance with Ozzie was crowded: 17 squares on the first tip, and 10 still
dancing one the last one.
Club officers were elected at the dance on February 28th: Barry and Anita
Johnson were retained as President, Chris and Linda Kious were retained as
Vice-President, Al and Jeanie Gain were retained as Treasurer, and Ron and Geri
McPheron were retained as Secretary. I guess they'll make us all do it
again until we get it right!
2/5/03
Slow news, lately. We're sorry to report that LaVerne Wall, who was a
member of the club until this year, passed away last Friday. It wasn't
unexpected, but that doesn't make it any less sad. We'll all keep Ken and
LaVerne in our prayers...
1/10/03
Our web service provider went out of business. If you couldn't find
our web site for a week or so, we were scrambling to find a new home. We
ended up using the Citadel Data Center for
our hosting... they've got great rates, fast servers, and 100% uptime for
the past four years!
12/15/02
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If you missed the dance, you missed the ornaments! For twenty years,
the "Day Stitchers" and "Night Stitchers" have been making Christmas ornaments,
and giving away at our last dance before Christmas. This year, the
ornaments were cute little reindeer made from wine bottle corks. 75
ornaments, each with four corks: 300 bottles of wine had to be emptied in
order to make these pretty little things. Once that number was mentioned,
several people volunteered to help with next years ornaments!
Let's all feel sorry for Rick Allison: he's going to south Texas in late December -- but has to come back after just a week! Ask him what he thinks of our weather when he gets back for the January 10th dance...
12/1/02
Howard and Herb call back-to-back dances. On November 22, Howard
Hoffman never left the stage all night as he called and cued the entire dance.
The third tip was an elimination tip: three progressively faster singing
calls, and only three out of the fourteen squares made it through. Trudy
Larsen was proud: she's now two-for-two in surviving eliminations!
Herb Oesterle called on the day after Thanksgiving. Even with the holiday, 100 people showed up for the Weight Watcher's Wiggle!
11/10/02
It was an adventure!
First, clogged traffic slowed the progress to the bus, then the rain
started.... and the driver's windshield wiper
stopped working. We finished the last fifteen minutes of the trip
hoping the window would stay clear... only to miss the turn into the
school, and finally called for a "pilot" volunteer to come get us. But
when we pulled into the parking lot, Jan told us we had arrived at the
30th Anniversary Dance of the Wrong Ways in Hebron, Indiana, called by
Mike Argue.
The dancing was outstanding, and the food was incredible! Table after
table filled with homemade salads, sloppy joes and barbecues, pies and cakes and
more. What a trip!
In other news, Erv Cambell was at the dance on Friday night, looking
very well (but not dancing). Laverne Wahl has also been doing worse
lately, and our hearts go out to her.
10/29/02
What's with these broken hearts lately? Erv Cambell had a
quintuple bypass operation on Monday at Northwestern Community Hospital, and
everything turned out well. There was no prior damage to the heart, and
he's recovering just as nicely as the doctors would like. But then Dave
Williams started feeling some shoulder pain that turned out not to be his
shoulder after all. Tuesday found him just down the hospital hall from Erv,
recovering from an sudden angioplasty. Again, things turned out well and
Dave is recovering as expected.
10/27/02
21 squares came out to be Bewitched at our costume dance last Friday!
Don and Doug Sprosty were outstanding, as always, and Howard's cuing was superb. Erv Cambell went into the doctor for a stress test on Friday, and the results
weren't as good as one would like: he's scheduled for a triple bypass
operation on Monday morning. At least they caught it before anything
serious happened!
10/12/02
We have a TV star in the club! Our own Jan Dunham was selected to play
the part of Cheryl, a clerk showing Christmas wreaths, in a Discover Card
commercial. Congratulations, Jan!
10/6/02
We're now 6 for 8 in banner stealing -- we've been out eight times,
and stolen six banners against stiff competition. Wow!
Six couples from Arlington Squares went down to the Mid-America Square Dance
Jamboree in Louisville. They danced to a dozen of the best callers in the
nation for two days of high-energy dancing.
We brought back flyers
for next year's gathering -- save the first weekend in October, and join us
down there next year!
9/30/02
If you missed Jerry Rash, you missed a heckuva dance! Nothing
but smiles and compliments from the crowd. See you on the 11th for our
next dance.
9/24/02
Tony Oxendine, Curt Braffet, Chuck Young, and Dave Sutter all called last
weekend at the Roy Rillings Dancer's Appreciation ball, with a dozen or so of
the Arlington Squares in attendance. The twelve-piece Liberty Band was
great! The hall was packed -- there were probably 400 dancers there, but
the dancing was incredible! Sorry you missed it...
Our first dance of the year was good fun. About 17 squares showed up for
Rick Allison to knock our summer rust off -- four clubs retrieved their banners,
and three more tried to steal ours. Thanks to all that volunteered for the
first kitchen duty of the season.
Speaking of banner stealing, we succeeded in our first four attempts for the
year, but finally missed at the Flying Squares last Saturday.
By the way, Uncle Artie is calling our lessons with two or three cracked
ribs... a slip on the stairs just a few days before lessons started led to
a quick trip to the hospital. He's doing well, but those ribs still hurt!
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9/6/02
Goodbye, Jerry and Nancy! The Matlins have found a new home just
outside San Francisco, and will be leaving us at the end of this month.
Was that a little gloat in Jerry's voice when he mentioned that the
Ghostriders band regularly plays
at the square dance club in town?
Come along on the Mystery Trip November 9th!
Jan and Dave will have all of the details (except the destination, of course) at
the dances and lessons. If you haven't done one of these before, they're a
blast!
8/19/02
Had a blast at the picnic! It was a little too hot and sunny, so folks
stayed in the shade most of the time. Artie's daughter brought Marge out
to the park to visit for an hour or so... it was Artie and Marge's 60th
wedding anniversary!
Eleven folks from the club spent last weekend in LaCrosse at the Wisconsin
State Convention. If you ever get a chance to dance to the Siegman
Family, take it! Len Siegman together with his son and two grandsons mixed
beautiful harmony with pretty figures. Ask Joan Nick about watching her
first tractor pull...☺
8/3/02
It's Picnic Day! We're about to head off to the picnic to see
everyone, but first a couple of reports from the last month.
Six couples (including the Wielengas -- nice to see them again!) went to the
Canadian National Convention in St. John, New Brunswick (just up the coast
from Maine). Where the US National Convention was a high-energy
dance-focused event, this was more like a vacation with dancing available
whenever you wanted. We kayaked next to sea caves and a 200-foot high
sheer vertical cliff, went whale watching in a Jacques Cousteau-like Zodiac
boat, got soaking wet riding a jet boat in and through 12-foot waves, and saw
the results of the most amazing tides in the world (40 to 50 feet high twice a
day). Of course, there was also "Waterless Wednesday", when not one but
both of the water mains feeding the entire city broke down... but it was
an adventure we'll remember for a long time.
The Illinois State Convention in Peoria was a blast: Nine couples
headed south for the day or the weekend. Next time you're in Peoria, check
out Lariats: wonderful food!
7/9/02
First, the National Convention... incredible! Nearly 9,000
dancers met in St. Paul at the end of June for four full days. Tours,
workshops, classes, exhibits, pin trading, and dancing... from 10AM to
midnight every day. Good friends, good times. If you haven't had the
experience, you need to go to a national convention at least once. We're
now signed up for Oklahoma City next year, then Denver, Portland, and San
Antonio in the years after that. On to the Canadian National
Convention next week!
Thank you to everyone that helped out through the Frontier Days festival. We marched in the parade (mostly marching... the pace was too quick for offer many chances to dance) on Thursday, served ice cream on Friday, and held our demonstration dance on Sunday. It was great to see the support from so many club members.
6/16/02
Whew, what a week! First there was Graduation on Tuesday night!
Our new dancers had to pass their final examination -- a written test
(unscrambling call names) and two practical tests (dancing with a rope around
their waist, and dancing with two brooms replacing people in the square).
Uncle Artie moved the two brooms around until they were corners together -- then
had everyone swing their corner. Don't try that one at home, kids!
Seriously, though, it was a wonderful way to end the season of lessons.
Friday night was the banquet with nearly 80 people in attendance. A good time was had by all... even if Ron and Geri's names were accidentally left off the list of planned attendees (oops!). Fortunately, they did come and brought the checkbook so we could all eat.
Saturday night was Ozzie Pearl's annual Out Behind the Barn dance at his farm near Bloomington. Attendance was down a little bit because of the recent rain and cooler weather, but that just meant we could all fit inside his barn instead of dancing out on the grass. Tim Cardwell called it "an awesome weekend" -- hours of high-powered dancing to live music (by The Mountaineers) followed by bonfires and marshmallow roasts. It's only about three hours to drive down there and there's plenty of motels in the area. Think about going next year -- you'd enjoy it!
6/8/02
It's official! The wedding of Dave and Jeanne Williams was a joy.
Four squares of club members did demonstration dances at the reception to Howard
Hoffman's smooth calling, in addition to decorating the hall and cleaning up
after the reception. The happy couple sends their love and thanks to
everyone. Overheard at the reception: "If everyone could see how
happy they are, square dancing would boom again!"
5/24/02
We had a wonderful time at Rick's roast: ever seen him wrapped up like
a mummy, or wearing a multi-colored fright wig? Also
enjoyed dancing to Jeff Nelon at Glenview's dinner dance last week.
5/15/02
Art Corwin (former member) passed on last weekend. Artie has a sympathy
card for Helen.
Linda Kious has a new grandson! Big baby... ten pounds, if I
remember right. Chris had pictures at lessons last night...
Rick Allison's Roast is tomorrow night (5/16) in Evergreen Park! We've got
a square or two heading down for it.
Goodbye to Jim and BJ Wielenga: They're moving to Florida on Monday.
Perhaps we can all visit (at once)? Think they can handle 100 houseguests?
5/6/02
What a great time! 34 people went to see Cole Porter's Anything
Goes at Giorgio's Stage Right dinner theater last night. Good food,
good play, great company. Glad to see you all there!