by Beki Crider
Merry Christmas to all and Have a Happy New Year!
Your 2006 Fort Worth Chapter Officers hope all your dreams and wishes come
true in 2007 and your dancing continues to be fun with all your dance family of friends. Be safe and we will be here for you in
2007.
Christmas Party for FW Chapter
Christmas Party...December 16@7:00 at Don and Vera Hancock's new home @ 3021 Running Brook Dr. in Joshua. Bring a covered dish, Chapter will furnish the meet. We will be dancing and party down.... Click Here for a Yahoo Map and Driving Directions, if you need them.
This time of year is always a little sad for the dance community and the Fort
Worth Chapter. We lost 2 dance family members this year. Don Myers of Westside
Shufflers and always a close friend of the FW Chapter and Pat Pagliaroli of the Midland/Odessa Chapter...also a very dear and close friend
of the FW Chapter family. Also, Jim Couchman and Larry Moore in prior years.
With the 4 of them I’m sure Heaven has some good dancing going on. Don is
doing his DJ thing and Pat, Jim and Larry are all instructing. They are getting
the dance scene ready for the rest of us...until then we keep them in our hearts
and keep on doing what they loved so much...Dancing!
Remember our troops!
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.!,
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and
I cherished the sight. My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, My daughter
beside me, angelic in rest. Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight. The sparkling lights in the tree I
believe, Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my
breathing was deep, Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep. In perfect
contentment, or so it would seem, So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near, But I opened my eyes when it
tickled my ear. Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the sure sound
of footsteps outside in the snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near. Standing out in the cold and
the dark of the night, A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, Perhaps a Marine, huddled here
in the cold. Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, Standing watch over me,
and my wife and my child. "What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here! Put down your pack, brush the
snow from your sleeve, You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, Away from the cold and the snow
blown in drifts.. To the window that danced with a warm fire's light Then he
sighed and he said "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice. I'm here
every night." "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line, That
separates you from the darkest of times. No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me. My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a
day in December," Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always
Remembers." My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam', And now it is
my turn and so, here I am. I've not seen my own son in more than a while, But my
wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her Smile. Then he bent and he carefully
pulled from his bag, The red, white, and blue... An American flag. I can live
through the cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I can sleep in a foxhole
with little to eat. I can carry the weight of killing another, Or lay down my
life with my sister and brother.. Who stand at the front against any and all, To
ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright, Your family
is waiting and I'll be all right." "But isn't there something I can
do, at the least, "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a
feast? It seems all too little for all that you've done, For being away from
your wife and your son." Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget. To fight for our rights back
at home while we're gone, To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For when
we come home, either standing or dead, To know you remember we fought and we
bled. Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, That we mattered to you as
you mattered to us."
Need email addresses for upcoming events!!!
Good friends are like stars...You don't always see them but you always know they are there.
Friday
night... we have decided to visit our
sister chapter the Westside Shufflers at Electric Cowboy’s on
Friday nights for a while. As you know we usually leave around 9:30 to 10:00 as it gets
more crowded by
then and the restaurants clear out so it’s a win win situation for both of us.
Saturday night...you will find us at
The Horseman Club doing our thing. This is our home base so come out
and join us for a fun night of dancing and being with friends.
If you would like to be informed about upcoming events or reminders on top of the
dance announce list then send me your email address and I will see that you get a
reminder. We have more workshops coming up and you need to be informed about
these. A lot of time is spent putting these together for you and I know if you just know
about them sooner you would want to attend. Ron and I and Donnie and Melinda and
so many others have gone to so many workshops over the years and I never come away
without some new knowledge or a reminder of something I knew to do but just had let
that idea or technique slip away. You know we are not getting any younger and the
minds are starting to go...so come to the workshops to try and stay ahead of this old age
thing.
We are looking for ideas for a road trip. We love taking these short weekend
excursions around Texas. If you know of a fun club you have been to before and
it’s a town we can drive to on a Saturday, dance that night at the club and
see some sights the next day in the area and then drive back let me know. Just send an email to me at: CronBekiC@charter.net
Beki
RGFG
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