Still famous...

Orin and I have been trying to make it swing dancing forever. After several times of looking and not finding any swing in Los Angeles, we decided to go to a place called the Alpine Lodge in Torrence. After work yesterday, we ventured out into the freezing cold (in the 50s!!!!) Los Angeles weather and stuffed ourselves into Orin's car with the heater blasting. Half hour later we arrived in suburbia. Jamba Juice, Ralphs, parking lot, Target, Ralphs, parking lot, Best Buy, Ralphs, parking lot. And then we turned the corner and, voilà, we were in Solvang. Or, a parking lot filled with randomly placed buildings that all had pitched roofs, white trim, and rounded shingles that make it always look like Christmas and butter.

We push open the wood doors with diamond windows in bottle-glass green to find a giant room with a sunken dance floor and a big band playing "why don't you do right..." On the dance floor, we do not see kids in rolled up jeans and tight white t-shirts flailing around and throwing each other into the air. We do not see girls in retro house dresses wearing two rolls on their head. We see couples dancing small, dancing carefully, respectfully wearing slacks and button-downs, small heals and skirts hemmed below the knee. The average age is, perhaps, 70. And that's with me and Orin factored in. Orin and I look at each other and grin. This was swing in the good ol' days (by which I mean the 90s, before the craze hit) when we were 15 and never danced with someone under the age of 60. It was fun to be the kids again.

It was a good bit into the night when people started plopping themselves down right in the middle of the dance floor, WHILE the band was playing. From the crowd a wiry man with a big grin dances out in tap shoes and completely wows us with his agility and ability to entertain. "Hey, Orin, don't we know that guy??? Isn't that Chester?" Orin couldn't remember, but when they announced his name, sure enough, it was old Chester from our Jonathan and Sylvia days.

A while later someone approached us. "Hi, where're you guys from?" We figured Santa Barbara was the right answer. "I was just over there thinking, he replied, "'I KNOW those white people from somewhere.'" He proceeded to tell us a place to go dancing in LA every night of the week. Later, we met Betsy who recognized that we learned from Jonathan and Sylvia by our style. No wonder we loved swing dancing. People are so nice!