Father/Daughter Dance

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Many years ago (I am thinking around 1985) in the City of Bangor, Maine they started having a Father/Daughter Velentine's Day Dance.

(A) and I were in attendance the first year. That year the dance was held in the parks and rec building. The building had been an elementary school and the cafeteria seemed like a great place to hold it. While it was a truly wonderful time and event and all the girls loved it, the venue was too small. The dance quickly outgrew that little old cafeteria and in coming years moved to the Civic Center where I think they could hold 500 couples for the dance. It was still a tough ticket to get and people were advertising in the paper asking for tickets.

All of the surrounding towns, seeing the success of this event started having their own events and now they are a staple around these parts, as I am sure they are in other parts of the country as well.

I attended for many years. First with (A) and then started attending with (K) when she was old enough. Each year there would be a new dress and of course flowers. I would take my daughter out to dinner and then we would go to the dance. We had pictures taken and everyone had a wonderful time.

Now it was never really much of a dance, but I would get dances in with my daughters. Most of the time though, the girls would talk with their friends and the fathers would talk with the other fathers. The light refreshments also filled up part of the night as well as more than a few bellys. I really did enjoy going and I know the girls liked it too. At the end of the night we would have a wonderful picture and of course we still have fond memories.

I attended my last one, and this is a guess, somewhere around 1994. I knew I would not be attending another dance as (K) was getting a little too old for that event and I could see the writing on the wall. She had a good time, but it was kind of bittersweet for me. I really did enjoy them, even if I didn't get to dance much, and had to talk with fathers of the girls friends who I didn't really know. Nonetheless, it was for me the start of the time when other boys would become more important in my girls lives then I was. They were growing up and this was to be my last Father/Daughter Valentine's Day Dance.

Well, I am glad to report I was wrong!!! The note came home from school yesterday. The town we moved to is one of the towns that started having their own dance! I can attend with Shyanne. The event will be held on February 13th and you can be sure there will be some pictures posted here.

I was very excited to see the paperwork, and I wrote out the check immediately. (DW) will be getting it out today and we will be sure to be in attendance. I am not sure where we will go for dinner, but if I give Shy the choice, I have a pretty good idea of where we will end up.I know it will be a wonderful time, and I will certainly enjoy every last minute of it.

As far as the dancing goes......I am not sure I have as willing a partner as I had in the past. Maybe I have a willing partner who just doesn't like the way I dance. You see last night when I was talking to Shyanne about the dance, I took her hands and started dancing in the kitchen with her and told her how we could go to the dance and dance together! She had only one question:

"Daddy, is there a place where kids can dance alone?"

In spite of that, you can be sure we will get at least one dance in!!!! I can't wait!!!

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