Fremont Fair Again

Sunday, June 21, 1998

I'm so tired tonight, I even didn't go dancing, though sorely tempted! Friday is yet more dancing. Saturday's entry has been finished, with many pictures of parade goings-on.

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I decided to go to the Fremont Fair again. New York Jimmy and the Jive Five, whom I heard play last Wednesday night, were performing, and the Swing Girls were giving a swing dance demonstration, so I wanted to cheer them on and do some dancing.

I rode the bus downtown, and changed to the bus that would bring me to the fair. For both the timing worked out just right, and I hardly had to wait at all! It was a bright, sunny day and quite breezy.

A girl that I see often at the dances got on the bus shortly after me, and came and sat with me. (I call her a girl because she is about twenty years younger than me.) We chatted about dance topics, then walked into the fair together.

I don't know if she was just having a tough day, but nothing about the fair seemed to please her. Her lemonade was watery. Every craft item was ugly. (True, there is a lot of ugly stuff, but there are some nice things too!) When I told her about the great rayon print clothing I'd found at "Gone Troppo," she said "I'm really picky about my clothes," which seemed to say that I'll just wear any old rag. Even the stuffed animal frogs and snakes were not approved. "How could anyone like those fabrics?!" Oh well, I think she liked the music when the band played.

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Hallie Kupperman and Lovica Calisti, two of the Swing Girls that I take dance lessons with (and Hallie runs the Century Ballroom, as well) did a swing dance demo in front of the Redhook Brewery stage. The crowd liked it, of course, and they danced very well. They hadn't realized that they would be dancing on asphalt, so that meant some changes in their routine, but they adapted. There were a few minutes to fill after their act, and before the band was ready to play, so Hallie did an impromptu beginning swing class. This was good because it got people up dancing, but bad because they kept dancing even when the band was playing, even those who didn't know how. (Anita is a dance snob again.) The only reason I wished it were otherwise was because of the limited space available in front of the bandstand.

I have been paying strict attention to all the beginning lessons I've been going through lately, because I'll be teaching a beginning lesson at a Cacophony event next week! The one thing Hallie has been teaching that I don't think is suitable for a first lesson, is a cross-over step that involves changing the handhold, then actually leading your partner to step across her body, then turn back and step across the other way, then rock-step back. This is a lot to ask of folks who may have never partner-danced before, and I'd say the success rate is pretty low for those who really are beginners.

There were familiar faces in the crowd listening to New York Jimmy and the Jive Five, and I danced with quite a lot of them. The circumstances were challenging, though! The tempos were super-fast, the pavement was very rough, and the sun was bright. Some people in the audience did speak to me, asking me where I learned to dance, and so on. One woman said to me, "You should get that guy in the black shirt and yellow pants to dance with you again!" "He is a great dancer," I said. She was referring to Ted, a dancer from the Savoy club that I've had fun dancing with before.

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After the band was done, I changed my shoes back to my black leather Keds, and went over to chat with Hugh Sutton, whom I'd had great fun dancing with earlier. He's a musician, and our styles and rhythms seem to go well together! He said that the combination of sunshine and fast music drained him enough that he had to sit down between numbers, which isn't usual for him. So I pulled out my folding Japanese fan and fanned him with it, as we walked through the fair. I got a refill on my blackberry lemonade, and he got one of his own. Then we looked for a friend of his who was busking (street performing for donations) somewhere at the fair. I walked along since my main goal of dancing had been accomplished, and the major shopping I wanted to do had been done yesterday. We finally found the friend at the far end of the fair. Hugh accompanied him on the accordian, while the friend played "Over the Rainbow" on the saw. Pretty!

I walked back through the fair, thinking of getting something to eat and scanning the booths. I did find something I wanted to buy: some gadgets like large kilt pins with raku beads, meant to hold up sleeves instead of rolling them up. I'd seen these at the University-district street fair, and had thought of them when I found that several of the dresses I'd selected yesterday were long-sleeved. I also bought an earring rack. The last hours of a fair are often a good time for bargains; the vendors would rather sell things for less than pack them up and take them home again. I didn't see anything that appealed for dinner, though.

I waited for the bus. I was amused at the crowdlike behavior of the crowd at the bus stop. When the "special" buses come by, and one person has verified that such buses do not go downtown, but circle around and go back up the hill towards the north, still person after person must edge to the open bus door and ask the driver, "Doesn't this bus go downtown?"

When the bus did come that goes downtown, I was surprised to see my downstairs neighbor driving! I know he's a bus driver, but I'd never crossed paths with him on the bus before. It was crowded so I was sitting in the back, and I don't know if we'd have been inclined to chat any way. We really don't like each other very much.

It was while I was waiting for the bus that I started debating with myself about going to the Showbox tonight. I finally decided not to. I had this journal to update, and other web and email duties to perform. Enough! Let my knees and ankles have a rest!

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