Goldie

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific authors of all time. He wrote almost five hundred books but is probably best known for less than 100 of them – his science fiction stories. He was a delightful man who probably never had time to learn to square dance. We'll get back to him shortly.

How often have you puzzled over the patter we use in square dancing? It varies from clichés like "four boys make a left hand star" and "swing and whirl that pretty little girl," to "promenade your baby home."

Given the advancing age of most square dancers both here and in the United States, and faced with the fact that Time is less than kind to our physical appearance, we could be forgiven for thinking that it is inappropriate.

But is it?

Here's where Asimov gets involved.

In one of his last novels he contrived to have two scientists, a man and a woman, meet on a far planet. They hadn't seen each other for twenty years and the conversation went something like this:

He said, "You look as beautiful as ever."

She said, with some asperity,  "Don't be stupid. I'm twenty years older."

And he said, "Ah! yes. But my eyes have grown older with your body, Eugenia. They perceive no change."

It doesn't matter how old we are or, for that matter, how old we look. When the music plays and our feet start to skip around the floor, almost without conscious effort, the years drop away and we're all kids again. Square dancing is a time machine – it has a kind of magic that can transport us back to those days when the world was a little younger.

So the patter is still appropriate.  Even if we tend to stodge a little in our daily lives, once we get out on the dance floor we come alive. No wonder so many of us get addicted.

At the Tamworth National Convention I had the privilege of dancing with Goldie Forrest of Coffs Harbour. I had no idea how old she was and certainly wouldn't have guessed from her appearance or enthusiasm.

Goldie celebrated her 93rd birthday at the convention and still dances with the grace and energy of a young woman.

Asimov would have loved her.