This blog wants to encourage you to tell us how your parents or grandparents felt about dancing. To start off this investigation, George Nielsen has offered up his first recollections about dancing.
At the wedding of the sister of my buddy, Eldee Hingst, the ladies were sitting in the living room, talking. Mother was in the group, so was the wife of Pastor Stelzer, and so was an out-of-town relative of the family. The hour was getting late when the stranger asked out loud, “Has the pastor left yet so that we can dance?”
The rest of the story: Shortly thereafter the Stelzers did leave and the sinners rolled back the carpet and began dancing. I was still in grade school but I was horrified and told Eldee that he should get them to stop. I could not imagine that good Lutherans would dance. When I was about to be confirmed, Mother gave me a booklet “Why Was I Not Told?” and said that the family was against dancing and requested that I not do it. No big deal, I thought, and said “OK.”