The Saturday evening activities at Cowling began with a Belly Dance demonstration by Galia, along with some historical background. She also taught some of the basic movements to everybody present. This went well, except that mia_mcdavid injured a knee in the process. This slowed her down for the rest of the weekend, but did not stop her.

After that we went back to general folk dancing, with some instruction in the trickier and less remembered dances. We started with Moonshine, a fast Russian dance with lots of spinning. This was fun, but aggravated Mia’s knee. She sat down afterwards with an improvised ice pack, but was able to get up for Salty Dog Rag and a few other dances, notably Mairie’s Wedding.

Ann, my classmate who had arranged for us to have a place to stay, came by. She and Galia are on the committee for our class reunion next year, as I am too–now.

This was the third Carleton Folk Dance reunion. Someone from the class of ’91 had made a DVD with extensive footage from those of 1999 and 2002. He had not been able to identify all the dances that had been recorded, and he asked the rest of us to help. I was able to ID several from the footwork or (more often) the music. This took a while but it gave me the pleasant sense of being part of a history project (somebody cares about my peculiar interests from long ago!), or perhaps a being a tribal elder passing on ancient lore. Ellen came by afterwards to help with more identifications.

Some non-folk dancers came by to socialize. Among these were a couple who had been active in the Reformed Druids in the mid 1960’s–before I had arrived at Carleton. I had finally met them back in 2002. Both have been active for many years in the Diocese of California of the Episcopal Church. They are not alone: At least four of the first 10 Carleton Arch-Druids are now Episcopalians.

Dancing finished at 11 PM with Ma NaVu, a quiet Israeli circle dance. Afterwards many of the participants went over to one of the campus houses for a folk song session. Preparations had been made; I have never seen so many copies Rise Up Singing in one room. We had a good time. Ann came by to give me the key to the dorm room she had found for us. I owe her for that….

A little after 1 AM somebody requested “Hobo’s Lullaby”, which resulted in a general consensus that it was bedtime. Mia and I crossed the street and found our room in Davis Hall.

Sunday morning we woke up, washed, and then went to breakfast at the new Language and Dining Center on the East Side. It was surprisingly crowded. The reunion organizers had not made sufficient allowance for the fact that alumni at reunion, unlike students during the year, like to linger over breakfast, and the new dining hall did not have enough room for this. We then took a walk around campus and did a little shopping at the Bookstore in Sayles-Hill.

Afterwards we went over to Cowling for more dancing. This was slow getting started. Dick had been giving a morning talk elsewhere on campus and most of the dancers had gone to hear it (we overslept). Anyway, this ran a little late, which did not surprise me. Punctuality was not one of Dick’s many good points 35 years ago….

Sunday morning dancing, after it started, was quite relaxed, especially for us older alumni. I joined in the line for Bavno Oro and later (speaking of ancient lore) those of us from the ’70’s did Šestorka the way we did it back then. Dick and I comprised the entire men’s line. I have never seen this variant anywhere except at Carleton and by the ’90’s it was extinct even there. This is a pity; IMHO, having both figures and switching between them adds a lot of interest to the dance.

Dancing ended about noon with Yovano Yovanke, a simple and pleasant Lesnoto that we often used as a closer in the old days. Then we said our goodbyes and headed home. As we drove west on Highway 19 we listened to A Prairie Home Companion. The guest band was playing Moonshine as we approached I-35. We also saw a Bald Eagle overhead.

Unfortunately, we hit something nasty in the road at that point and our right front tire suffered a blowout. We had to pull over and change to the emergency tie on the shoulder of I-35. Fortunately, we had everything we needed (we had just purchased this car used and had not checked out all the equipment) to do this. Afterwards we crept home at the reduced speed required by the spare. A more exciting trip home then we wanted, but it did not detract from a truly wonderful weekend visit.