Dancing with Myself

This is my friend Kathy today working at the pocket-sized post office in my town as she has for the last 28 years. She is the strongest, toughest, biggest-hearted person I have ever met. She also knows more people in town than the mayor.    

In December 2011, I walked into the same post office. Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady” was blasting. “Rock Steady” had been my go-to dig-deep-inside get-me-home running tune for years.

Aretha Franklin performs Rock Steady live on Soul Train in 1973, episode 55. Footage licensed exclusively from Global ImageWorks. Additional talent and music clearances required.

There was no one at the window. Then Kathy emerged in her USPS sky-blues, looking much the same as she does in the photo above.

“I love this song,” I told her. I had never seen her before. Her regular gig is at the main post office in the center of town.

“So come hear my band Friday night,” she said, no-nonsense.   

I said I would and mentioned I reported for the local paper. Kathy said cool and I showed up, notebook in bag. Kathy had no idea who I was. I reminded her. Then she introduced me to the rest of the band.

I didn’t take many notes that evening. I just danced. It was surreal. It was magical. I love to dance, but only when I can dance solo. Only when I can ping off other dancers or swoop through a crush of shimmying couples or gyrate on the periphery.

Here’s the thing about dancing. For me it’s pretty much the most joyous thing to do. Maybe it’s the endorphins. I don’t know. All I know is that once I hit the dance floor I need to do my own thing and when I do it, there’s no better feeling.

Anyhow, I wrote a rough draft of this article when I got home at 2:30 a.m. that night.

A few weeks after that, during a break at one of the band’s gigs, Kathy, who was sitting at a table with some of her friends, spotted me. “Let’s be friends,” she shouted.

And a few months after that, I became the manager of the band. No one in the band has ever defined what that means, but it seems to work, more or less.