A surprise phone call from an old friend , that reconnected us after a long period of time led to a speed run down to St. Petersburg for a visit and consequently on to the Fl. Keys Getting a car rental from Enterprise car rental proved to be a breeze and was the beginning of a very enjoyable week of meeting old friends and making new ones . By the By Enterprise treated me very well and I can recommend their service highly , that is not a paid AD they just do a good job !A three hour trip down to Tim's place proved to be painless with light traffic and clear skies . Needless to say I stocked up with local delicacies ,seems two old chefs can't visit without firing up the grill ! Upon arrival and besides catching upon two years of news of other friends , our health conditions and who we had talked to or couldn't find , the planning started . We decided on a tour of Gulfport / St. Pete area including Fort Desoto and the State Park there (Really sweet looking campground for RVs ) , a day out at the dog track and Sunday there was a dance at the Gulfport Casino . I'll skip the dog track other than to say we lost about a $1.25 each on a whole day there .
The real story is in the casino , not a real casino now but probably was when it was built back in the 1930's , now it is a venue for dances , weddings etc . Now I liked to see Ballroom Dancing but sure as heck can't do any ! I'm way too crippled up , as we entered the casino I started to look around and think of what a cool place this was . Early in the evening there were 50 to 60 people there and the three piece band was playing to a largely empty floor , to be honest I had no idea how big the place was until a little later and the dancers filtered out on the floor , at one time there 70 plus dancers and there was still a lot of room , at least that was what I thought . These dancers move ! the youngest couples were in their 20's and the oldest was probably close to 90.
They all moved better than me ! The Magic began as we watched these impeccably dressed couples drift onto the hardwood floor into each others arms with a secret smile at each other that bespoke of years of love and caring . The evening played on with the arrival of a few couples carrying suspicious looking cloth bags , thus began my education about Ballroom Dancing !
Like some bizarre gunfighter ritual these new arrivals brought new life to the floor , from those suspicious bags came the dancing slippers , special socks to wear, the straightening of ties , vest and jackets a tug on the chiffon and silk here and there and things started to happen ! As the new couples stepped onto the floor I remarked to Tim " I believe these folks have done this before " . The steps became more precise, the hands held just so , heads tilted back with a million watt smile and this little cosmos in a vast universe changed for the next few hours . The magic of watching people who thoroughly enjoyed each other dispelled the everyday evils and demons that plague our everyday lives . As I watched and took pictures I wondered and hoped a little that perhaps this constant crisis of oil/ gas we seem to live with will perhaps push folks back together at gatherings like this . We stepped outside to leave and there was a family of five playing on the beach , across the street at an outside bar a single guitar player was entertaining the patrons , around the corner a cafe was doing a brisk business with late evening star gazers on the patio . Not a bad scene to leave you with , tell you about the Keys trip tomorrow.
