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August 2006 Blog
Rick Hampton Square Dance Caller

August 3rd
I'm finally over the 24 hour stomach flu-Thanks Rod for taking Monday-Tuesday we missed Mirdza (She's with her ailing Mom) but we had a full square of visitors who benefited from the workshop and had FUN-I think they may be back. I hope so.  I decided to call our new Tuesday hall-"The coolest in the area" GREAT A/C-Lynn bring a sweater....LOL
On a more troubling note- A club in the other Association-(Not V but U) is trying to rehash the failed approach to teaching by alternating tips with the class/plus- This does NOT work-It will cost you your class and to those plus dancers who want more time I say-GO DANCE PLUS-Literally Every Saturday within a 40 minute drive-PLEASE don't take your growing club (let's see y'all didn't alternate last year-Y'all graduated a huge group, now club members) and go back to the failed approach that a former area caller used to damn near kill off 5 years worth of class members.  Maybe it'll work in Arizona (hee-hee)..................By the way I don't teach for this group-Please ,Please, Please we cannot afford (all of us) to lose another years class. (The Plus folks won't be happy either) We've all seen this approach fail-Let's not have a re-run of a huge past mistake.

Rick

August 7th
The way folks get mired in the minutiae of the Club structure never ceases to amaze me. More later after I see how this latest "crisis" gets resolved- Can you say Caller Run from now on- Makes sense to many. AGGGHHH

Rick

August 8th
It is 10:47Pm and I'm going to bed??????WAIT....Rick never goes to bed till 2am or later????????? That's cuz I'm calling a demo from 5-8 AM on CBS 47 TV in Fresno- Then it's off to Kings Canyon National Park for a one nite stand. I HATE MORNINGS especially ones that come at night. I'll let you know how it goes (assuming I don't expire from the whole experience)- As far as the above (8/7) goes- I've learned more and am still amazed how one fool can ruin a whole lot of folks.
PART 2
Well I made it, 1 1/2 hours sleep- Demo Scorecard  The Newsanchors started the morning with the usual "image" and by the end were singing along with songs like Jumping Jack Flash, Jet Airliner, Soul Man and Hotel California- Too bad the dancers didn't understand we want real people, so all but 2 wore frilly-foo-foo  s/d garb and even talked on camera about how it takes 9 months and a once a week commitment to learn MWSD- And how petticoats are the way to go.  Oh well, I tried-maybe the music will help (Did I mention the NewAnchor came back on camera with Sunglasses on as I was doing Soul Man ( that was a BIG Plus) the "look how good the 82 year old  looks" interview was a BIG Minus) so the demo scorecard is 7+ (on a 1-10 scale)- Better than dancing at seniors day at the fair to old country and worse than trying to change our image-in fact somebody took offence to a promo for this on air demo "They made Fun of Us"- MAYBE IF WE STOPPED WEARING GOOFY CLOTHES-They wouldn't have the need to make GOOFY COMMENTS
PART 3
So I just checked the nice web link that the TV station gave us and some fool (V area fool not TV fool) gave the station a -wrong hall-1 year old class link- Oh yeah, I forgot, The V area has been looking for a webmaster for 2+ months- I suggested they use a person (1 month ago) who would've updated the sites for a lousy 25 bucks a month "We can't afford that"- Demo scorecard now a 4- and the vasd.org site remains useless........25 bucks, or the FIVE PEOPLE who may have shown up to class but can't find it.  Can we please bury this useless V entity before it finally kills s/d in the area (and on boy they've been trying for years)
PART 4
I got the TV web link moved to my accurate site- I replied to a ludicrous email from a former V area president who thought Mike Wallace was bad-mouthing square dancing on TV Sunday nite- What happened was John Wallace on Tuesday night was commenting on S/D based on our image- The same John Wallace who was so very impressed and said so this morning on the "progress in the music) BTW this email came from the same folks who wrote CBS TV( and told the s/d world)  a few years ago complaining about a Parody Bit on Saturday Night Live (which also was wholly based on our image)..............By the way SNL is on NBC not CBS. When these nice folks were elected the V had some 1400 newsletter subscriptions...they left it with less than 400....They did say I had an attituid (they might have meant attitude) and I was a Know it all (nope Just know what works everywhere else) They also said they would stay out of promotions from now on........................................THANK YOU......................Now if only the folks this AM had left the foo-foo in the closet
NOW for good news....12 Squares of 16-40 year olds Square dancing to modern music tonight, no dumb clothes, no hay bales, and fun....That would've been a good demo

Rick

August 11th
A fun Frazier Park Workshop Thursday-A lousy trip down-Some unexplained stop on the road, followed by a pace car leading led to me being very late- Thank goodness for cell phones. I called for Steppers (Fresno) tonight- Warm hall and a
class who've missed quite a few sessions-So it was all review and full speed practice. It went well after I got the angels to
shut up- What ever happened to "listen,listen,listen"- Oh well the class appreciated the review (and the "let's just have one caller tonight" reminders). So did many of the club-The guilty angels remain clueless. Rick has his work cut out for him in this area. The club dance was good and the star tip went very well-I wish those nice folks would come out on 4th Sundays but that's another story. Tomorrow it's Mavericks in Roseville and Sunday a meeting in Tracy, Then a 45 day run with maybe 4 days off. YEEHAW
PS The "crisis in minutiae" from above was resolved by a unified group telling the guilty party to stop, leave, quit or stop stay and continue but STOP

Rick

August 14th
A busy weekend- A fun (albeit small 9-Squares) at Royer Park on Saturday- And a productive meeting Sunday in Tracy
Monday had my oldest start COLLEGE (and she's doing well) Mrs. Rick and Oldest and Oldest's Roomate went to see Tim McGraw tonite ( I put the law down-Lynn- NO CROWD SURFING) This is what my Oldest did at last concert-Got punched in the face- Kids will be Kids- Youngest (still in HS) starts a College level Choir Tuesday..........Rick B had another Heart Attack( He's Ok-for having 5 but who's counting) and I'm tired............PS Jet can COOK-Thanks for Din-din and another stay at the Roberts Motel- Sylvia is well and Snickers the dog finally likes me.  Tues it's Visalia, Wed it's a S/D party and the weekend brings Fri So/Cal Sat a recording session then Pismo and Sunday Lynn and I will dance to Eric ( I'm driving 500 miles for this-It's WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Wes will cover RB class Wed-RB will call Sat and don't forget the "Taller Caller" is the Father of The Bride Sat- CONGRATULATIONS TOM AND CRYSTAL- Oxygen please for Rod

Rick

August 20th
A GREAT week-Monday the "issues" have been resolved by Majority Common Sense-Tuesday a chance for the public to
"Check us out"-They had a Back to School Night (at the Church) and we were dancing- Wed was another S/D Party with Family's- Great success and FUN- Thursday It was Oakhurst and a long chat w/the "powers to be" about the proposed merger of 2 clubs- and a move to Wed nights- I wish them (and the Nuggets) luck-I think that Weds are historically a GREAT Oakhurst Nite- Merging 2 Clubs and 3 Callers.................That might be problematic. Friday was SGV BnB's and a nice evening-Sat was Pismo's and Taws after a recording session for the SharpShooter Youth Music project and a good session it wuz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sunday Lynn and I danced to Eric along with a smaller crowd than I expected (Not a bad crowd 7-8 Squares)- Thanks WHIRLAWAYS and SKIRTS (Clubs I call for) Where wuz the rest (Clubs I don't call for)?? (Thanks also to the Hillbillies) Everyone else -They missed a GREAT (by every account) Dance- Some who came even managed to not be "too tired after the parking lot thing" -That's the kind of stuff that got the V area in trouble-Face it-sometimes 2 good dances are adjacent and if not supported- next time there may be NO good-or other dances at all.

Rick

August 24th
Finally after 4 looooonnnnngggg days I've got the SharpShooter stuff starting to flow, Technology can be feisty at times.
A good Monday-low crowd-lotsa folks on vacation. Tuesday's hall just keeps getting better-they moved the stage for us and we gained room for 2 more squares- 10 is now comfy!!!-Join Us.....Mrs. Rick had a substitute teacher in the next room-A 3 year teacher-Who looked familiar-It was one of Mrs. Rick's former 3rd grade students..........We gave her oxygen and she'll be all right someday LOL-Now wait till one of her kindergarteners is her boss- Dave from Tuesdays said he retired from teaching when he was seeing the grandkids of the parents who were kids he taught -3 generations. I don't think oxygen will help Mrs. Rick at that point LOL

Rick

Early AM (4:01am) August 27th
A fun weekend at FunWuns- 11 or so Squares and faced paced Advanced-Rustlers (their FIRST single caller Dance) Was well attended and a BLAST!- Speaking of blast- I hung out at Roy's Blast class today and watched YOUNG people learn fast-Fun..........OK I drove 300 miles (This ^%$^%$ is getting old) so I can do the Clovis Advanced dance-I'll betcha lunch that the vast (hmm rhymes with vasd) majority of the dark advanced workshop in Fresno-Most of who belong to the Friday (also been dark alot) club will somehow manage to "gee-we missed it"-  That ^%$&^$ is getting OLD as well- Prove me wrong!-I'm certain that IF the group continues there WILL be a time change (4-7,5-8) as I'm getting too old for the all nite deadhead drives.

Rick

August 29th
A FUN Sunday-Good Level and I won the above bet. Still all who were there had a GREAT time and we'll do the October
one-(Sept is dark for Oakhurst) Nov and Dec dark for holidays-Time change in January!!!!- Monday I was at Daughter #2's "Back to School Night" Thanks to Ricky "Yes he is still alive" B. for covering Whirlaways. Tuesday Party nite saw the Whirlaways return the Sat Visit by Sequoia - Sequoia also visited the Steppers Dance sat (2 visitations in one nite!!)- No one came down-Seems to be a Fresno thing-I wonder where Sequoia will focus their visits?  One place will be Clovis as TP's came down-THANKS.

Rick