A Country Tradition

Once a month a wonderful, hidden little spot in Central Ontario hosts one of our favorite dance bands, The Royal Aires, and as often as we can, we get a gang together and dance the night away to the sounds of the Big Bands. Lakeside, Ontario, prizes its one and only Danceland, which has a tradition which going back many many years.

A couple of weeks ago we drove the hour trip to Lakeside with a couple of friends and had a great time as always. You might wonder what is so special about this place. It actually has a new building built over the old pavilion-style building which I remember from my teens. We went there throughout the summer, maybe swimming in the lake, buying a burger, and then dancing at night. I remember the sides opened up to form swing-out roofs over those looking inside, but most importantly letting out the summer heat from all those dancers. Once I went to the washroom and when I opened the door to the cubicle there was a panty girdle sitting on the floor, all scrunched up in front of the toilet as though someone had taken it off, sat down, done her business, and then walked away! Yikes!

But times have changed. The facility was updated several years back and now sports the new building right over top of the old with air conditioning, a kitchen, a fireplace and an extended area of tables to sit at surrounding the dance floor. why did the owners spend so much money to build over top of the old building, instead of tearing it down and starting from scratch. I haven't mentioned the floor. Beautiful, even, perfectly finished hardwood is laid over a proper wooden base so as to provide 'give' and thus make dancing fun instead of painful. (It's amazing how many places today advertise dancing and then give you a tired bit of parquet laid right on concrete! That stuff will kill your legs.) So the floor is Danceland's treasure.

If you check out the website you will see another charming bit about Lakeside's Danceland--the customers are all ages. We like the big band music, especially since sometimes we are the youngest ones there, and that music speaks to older people who danced to it in the 40's and 50's. I noticed a tall man, slightly stooped, dancing with his wife who was leading him around the floor. They looked so happy and yet I could see his struggles. Maybe he had Parkinson's or Alzheimer's because his dance steps were shuffles and his wife seemed to be in control. How wonderful that there is still a place for them to enjoy something that obviously meant so much to them.

That Saturday night we picked out several students from dance classes in nearby London, not because we know them, but by the lovely steps they were practising. Some did the tango, others the schottische, lots of us waltzed and flew around doing the polka, but the most prevalent dance was the twostep which you could do to almost everything the band played. We get really tired of that and often do a quick polka step or throw in some jive steps from our many years of dancing together.

Our band of choice is the Royal Aires, pictured below. The leader is in the centre and he and his brother have been doing this for over 40 years. Amazing.

Last visit they had a new trumpet player who, it turns out, used to play with them many years ago, went on to play with lots of the greats, and now has 'retired' to play local engagements again. He was great on trumpet and pretty good as a singer, too.

If you happen to think this all sounds like a good time, check out the website above and join us. Might be a bit of a commute for lots of you, though:-)