Hazard's Glory Years

I was watching Dancin' With The Stars tonight and my daughter said, "what would Auntie say if she were here and saw these scanty outfits and the throwing of legs, etc?" At that I left the here and now and my mind went racing back to that night on Liberty Street in the 60's when we all were sitting around our tv watching the Glen Campbell Show. I forget who the dancer was but my Auntie and Granny had sat down to watch the show with us. Bear in mind they were not tv watchers and it was "of the devil".

The ballet dancers were great and they faded back a little and he picked her up above his head and in pure form there she was giving it her all; Granny about fainted as she said, "Lordy, Lordy, Laura, have you ever seen sich a sight, she's pite-nite naked, dancin' round in her "shimmey shirt and drawers". Auntie started squirming and her mouth was moving but nothing was coming out. My young daughter (who is now 55) thought Auntie was having a "fit". About that time he brought her down and lifted her back up and put his hand in under her to obtain a good stance and all Hell broke lose at 109 Liberty Street. Auntie jumped up, grabbed Granny, all the time letting me have it, "Idy, turn that devil machine off, not fit for youngans or old folks" Granny chimed in, "Idy, never saw sich vulgar dancing in my life, why she was half naked and that twern't enuf for that feller, he had to grab her by her crotch and lift her above his head again....mercy, mercy, land sakes a-live, them youngans don't need to see sich as that, turn it off, turn it off...hey, Matt, put yore foot through that thang right now." Uncle Matt just laughed and kept on puffing on his pipe. Honest, I liked to have never calmed them down to listen to what they really saw. Bless their hearts they were in golden years both of them and I think this was the first show they had seen and I look back with their eyes and it must have been nerve-racking to them.

Anyhow, that was then and this is now and they would have both passed clean out I am sure to see some of the costumes and dancers of this day and time. They are both long gone but their reaction to their first ballet dance we will never forget.