Saturday night, S. and I decided to break out of our hermetic existence* and went out on the town. Dinner was had, followed by a trip to a dance hall.
Our dance hall of choice was THE BROKEN SPOKE. It was love at first sight for me. Low ceilings, wood paneling, Kitty Wells on the P.A. and oh-my-goodness...80-year-old couples in matching western dance outfits gliding and two-stepping around the floor. Later, when the BAND started, a somewhat more mixed-age crowd filtered in but everyone - and I mean everyone - was dancing politely in slow circles around the floor. It was lovely. The unspoken rules are that you dance with anyone who asks you and so we watched as elderly men danced with much younger women (which was really very sweet, not creepy as you might think), fathers danced with daughters, older couples slid effortlessly past younger people with fancier moves but much less cool...it was just wonderful.
I've lost my notes from the evening but one odd experience was the women's bathroom, which features three teeny stalls, barely big enough to hold a toilet each. Peeing involved slipping into a stall, closing the Flag of Texas shower curtain that serves as the stall "door" and squatting. I had my feet stepped on twice by a woman who was washing her hands at the sink. Stepped on twice while I was in the stall. That's how small it is.
The front of the place is a restaurant and self-proclaimed "tourist trap" that is really a museum documenting the hall's long and storied existence. Past the tourist trap and bar is a doorway leading into the hall with a sign reading "No tank tops (men) or halter tops (women) allowed". As a woman who has seen more than her share of barely-contained man boobs, this came as a relief to me.
We'll be making a return trip with cameras and I'll post a more fleshed-out description of the place then.
*Can two people share a hermetic existence or is that, by definition, impossible?
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