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Wednesday, April 8, 2009
St. Vitus Dance, Southern style
8:42 AM | Posted by
David |
Having some free time on my hands as of late, along with being held hostage by an 8 week old black lab named Jake, I've been doing some Spring cleaning. To me, that usually involves putting things back I pulled out during the winter. I was sorting through some of my DVD's the other evening and came across one of my favorite movies. The name of the film is Shag, The Movie. The basis of the movie is typical of such films. A group of recently graduated high school kids decide to sneak off to Myrtle Beach. They are suppose to be attending some sort of a Southern culture event and in no way heading to the Redneck Riviera. You might know it was Fun Sun week and full of other high school grads from up and down the Eastern part of the US. I, too, had a Sun Fun week experience but that's for another post at a later date.
Myrtle beach has been the student mecca for as long as I can remember. When I was a senior and entertained the thoughts of going with the group I graduated with, I was told, "you ain't going to that old beach place". So instead, I went to work for Beckley Glass Company and spent my graduation week in the tourist mecca of Welch, West Virginia. It seems there was a riot of sorts and a store front window broken in the process. Anyway, seeing the movie Shag brought something to mind that brought a laugh out loud and a need to watch it again.
I was in a grocery store in South Carolina. It was there the person I was with, all of a sudden, grabbed the handle to the frozen food door and began a gyration much like St. Vitus Dance. There was an older gentlemen I used to see in downtown Beckley who would walk the streets during the day and all of a sudden go into a dance to music only his mind was hearing. My mom would say...as she so often did, "the poor old soul has St. Vitus Dance". I began to think the same that afternoon buying stuff for a cook out. But then another customer came down the isle and began to do the same thing. The conversation that followed revealed it was what is known as Shag Dancing. It's a dance born out of the beach culture and known as "beach music".
How these folks can be in such an almost reclined position and not fall down is beyond me. To say I was a wee bit embarrassed is an understatement. But it was refreshing to know that two total strangers could meet there between the frozen foods and fresh ground coffee and communicate by shuffling their feet and holding on to a door handle.
Later that evening as I was grilling burgers and chef for the evening, the same thing happened. Only this time it was with the deck rail post. I heard no music that I was aware of, but someone sure must have. A voice from the other end of the deck yelled out..."Momma, would you please stop that, it's embarrassing".
She then looked at me and asked if we had Shag dancing up there in West Virginia? I told her not really, but we have just learned this new thing called the Fox Trot. A very bewildered look came across her face, and she said something I'll never forget..."My God, down here they'll Shag to the 6 O'clock news"
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