While I was pretty much raised in Southern California I was actually born in Texas. I've listened, off and on, to country music most of my life. When I was in high school I didn't listen to it much, but thumbing through old yearbook photos I notice that didn't prevent me from wearing a cowboy hat from time to time.
I still have a couple of hats, a couple pair of boots, but don't wear them much these days.
When Country Western music started to crossover with more contemporary sounds in the '90 I noticed I was listening to it almost exclusively. Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Lorrie Morgan, George Strait...well the list goes on.
The music was twangy enough for my likes, but mainstream sounding enough that the public really seemed to embrace it.
I officially learned line dances, learned to two step and turned out to be fairly good at both if I do say so myself. I even taught a few classes here and there.
There was something truly liberating about the music and the dancing. Where couples dancing usually meant standing in front of your partner and moving about; two stepping necessitated embracing your partner. And there was always something very special about that I enjoyed. I remember more than once being asked to dance and almost always obliging.
The years have moved on and so have I. Country Western music is a little more pop sounding to me than I like. I've tried to listen to any number of CW stations, but I inevitably revert back to an oldies CW station, even if oldies now refers not only the the golden age of country music, but even music from the '90s.
Someone asked recently why I don't go dancing any longer. I mentioned, of course, the lack of connection to the music. But that's only part of the reason. The truth is I feel old.
It's not that I'm tired or anything like that. I just feel terribly old. I can't imagine walking into a bar and being the oldest, or at least one of the oldest people there. Now I'm not really that old, and maybe this is more in my head, but the people in bars now are in the 20s and 30s. I'm not in either any longer.
I was going through You Tube and came across the song below. It's funny because this song, more than most, brings me back to that dancing time that I enjoyed so much.
So here it is. And who knows, maybe one of these days I'll find a Country Western bar that plays the oldies from the 1990s and I'll don my hat and boots and cut a rug.
Enjoy!
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