dancin’ in the rain
A baby LK captured at an ‘80s dance party
Often, I’m asked either “Do you miss the South?” or “What do you miss about the South?” My immediate response consist of dancing to live music at bars every weekend, the food, and summers. Out West, the awkwardness of sitting down to watch live music feels incongruous with how we are meant to experience music and I’ve always thought it was a Seattle quirk but am discovering the absurdity of it is more widespread. How can one sit? I wonder.
When I think about my young adulthood, what I’m most nostalgic for is dancin’. In the rain, in the bars, down the street, on stages, with friends. I didn’t realize this phenomenon was part of my culture! Apparently, it’s a rarity outside of the South and oh, how I miss it.
Attending a local songwriter festival all weekend where most of the performers live in Nashville, flares these ideas up in my psyche. Enjoying dinner with friends last night and chatting about my time in Nashville make it even more evident this is what’s missing in my life. I recall how the pandemic also caused me to reminisce on the experiences of dancing to live music with friends. Left me wishing I could have it all back again.
The cool evenings laughing along with the cicadas on our evening stroll to bars around the corner in the Virginia Highlands. Hearing the blues and swaying our hips to the spaces between the notes. Stompin’ and shoutin’ to the rollickin’ tunes we didn’t even know the words to. The impressive fiddle playing and the harmonica that sears the heart. The dance circles at the club in Nashvegas that I hated at the time because it was soooo modern dancer annoying. Swayin’ and croonin’ and All. of. it.
Miranda Lambert denotes this concept in her song The House that Built Me. The idea that we can’t go home. Truly home. I s’pose I’ve been considering it for a while. The house I built demonstrates this too. For a fleeting moment I got it back when I lived in Tetonia. Summers of dancing to live music with a friend at the Tetonia Club filled my soul. So how can I conjur it back again now? Create the opportunity? Spread the word that chairs are for the weak of heart? Hmmm, I’ll add it the the to-do list.
Enough about me though, what about you? What bits of your culture do you feel you’ve lost and want back desperately? What do you miss? What are you nostalgic for? How do you plan to reintroduce it back into your life?