| Show He could kick the highest whirl the fastest and step-dance the liveliest of anyone At times the dancers would move back and give Hyrum plenty of room to do his special brand of entertainment strictly solo His eyes would shine and his feet would fly He never failed to receive several rounds of applause He reminded me ofpeppy Uncle Sam with his sparse chin beard and wiry frame At those dances people would bringgreat amount of luscious food and set it on side tables-rows of pies and cakes piles of cookies and doughnuts Danish beer bowls of sweet soup Everything tempting By far the most important person in the dance hall Bent was Will Willie Hansen the Hansenbrother Affable manager He was and charismatic yet he was alert to the business of the evening and nothing escaped his observation He usually stood at the door and greeted everyone On occasion he would announce the dances-Take your partner forwaltz or The next dance will be ladies choice Then again- There will be three more dances He stopped the music in the middle of the dance and scattered shaved wax on the floor pushing it forward withlong handled wide mop This repolished the floor and made the dancing more enjoyable He also opened or closed the high windows withlong wooden rod to ensure good ventilation After Will announced the last dance the original partners scrambled to find each other forlast swing around the hall Usually the tune was ItThreeClock in the Morning but occasionally if the hour was late and the orchestra members werebit weary theyrush through Home Sweet Home We would scatter in all directions In the winter season we would usually walk over toward Main Street small red light was burning on the corner of Main and State As we drew nearer we could see Fred Averett holding his large copper warmer filled with hot tamales wrapped in corn husks He made the most tantalizin tamales it has been my good fortune to eat Webuy the tamales forquarter apiece and stand insmall 105 |
