Two activities my grandmother frowned upon - dancing and card playing.
Her second husband, my "real" but nonbiological grandfather had a vice - he smoked until emphysema attached oxygen feeding tubes to him for the rest of his life.
Do you ever see a vice squad go after smokers?
I'm not a health nut but I watch what I eat, smoking fewer cigars every year (don't have the nicotine addiction gene, I guess).
Doesn't mean I'm healthy but I do dance. Don't play cards much, though.
Last night, after the usual great service by Noina, Gift, Eric and Rainy at Thai Garden, the missus and I wandered into Lowe Mill in our minimalist dance costumes.
There, we learned about a subculture called the steampunk/zombie apocalypse epitomised by Cherie Priest's book, "Boneshaker."
Goggles, leather and gears. Worn by a young woman dressed up for the Halloween contest tied to the dancing.
Our musical guests, the Rocket City Jazz Orchestra, played a few sessions of big band sound - Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Mack the Knife, etc. The perfomers were all middle-aged guys like me, with the exception of the lovely singer who bewitched us with her sweet voice, one part Deborah Kerr and one part Doris Day.
Spellbound, I remembered my days with the Georgia Tech Navy ROTC jazz band, marching in Georgian smalltown parades and the Nawlins Mardi Gras festival.
As my wife noticed after prying me out of seat to have a clumsy good time on the dance floor, we spent all of our childhood and I a good bit of my early adulthood performing on stage, not thrashing around with the sweaty throngs.
We enjoyed seeing the dozens of young people jiving and swinging, keeping the music of the '20s, '30s and '40s alive and doing well under the shadow of cotton mill water towers and moonshot rockets.
Here in the Heart of Dixie. The lottery-free trophy buckle of the Bible Belt.
What would my Southern Baptist mission-founding grandmother say about that? "God works in mysterious ways. There's a purpose for everything. That orchid you and yo wife have is pretty enough to be in a Federated Garden Club show."
And my grandfather? "Did you have a good time? Did you stay out of trouble? Would you like to hear a story about any of my 29 years in the Navy between 1929 and 1959?"
It's Halloween, as much a part of our culture as religion and jazz.
Pirates, jellyfish, Rafael, tomb raiders, flappers, ninjas, Rainbow Brite, phantom of the opera, Lady Luck, dragonfly lady, angels and Antoine Dodson. Outfits befitting the times.
What pilgrims could have imagined the local natives introducing them to a grain that would grow into a maize maze? Amazing!
How do we let politics and influence peddling get out of control? Have we? Should we? Should we not? Simple. Never trust accounts receivable and accounts payable to the same person(s).
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