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Texas once had 1,000 dance halls. Now there’s a rush to save those that remain

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Sanguine:

--- Quote ---By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Jun 04, 2019 | 3:00 AM
| Blanco, Texas

As she watched couples in cowboy boots whirl across the dance hall her ancestors built in 1879 — the place where she played as a child, met her husband, married off her son and taught her grandchildren to two-step — Jo Nell Haas despaired.

Twin Sisters Dance Hall used to draw people by the hundreds. In the early days, families came from surrounding farms on horseback to waltz Saturday night away under kerosene lamps. Children played in the nursery out back heated by wood stoves. Elders supervised young dancers from the “buzzard’s nest,” a platform near the entrance, ensuring they didn’t get too familiar.

Lyndon B. Johnson is believed to have danced at Twin Sisters growing up. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy winner Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys pioneered western swing from the narrow stage....

https://www.latimes.com/columnone/la-na-col1-texas-dance-hall-20190604-htmlstory.html

--- End quote ---

I have no idea why it's in the LA Times.

Jazzhead:
Thanks for this fascinating article, @Sanguine .   I wanna see the Gary P. Nunn retirement tour!  " I want to go home with the armadillo  . . . "

My first college roommate was from San Antonio, and he introduced me to a lifetime of great Tejas music. 

EdJames:

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thackney:

--- Quote from: Sanguine on June 06, 2019, 02:40:29 am ---I have no idea why it's in the LA Times.

--- End quote ---

Because they wrote about in Texas Monthly in April?

https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/texanist-decent-dance-halls-left/

GrouchoTex:
Been to Gruene Hall several times.
Saw "2 Tons of Steel" at Gruene a few times during the summer "Two Ton Tuesdays".
"Asleep at the Wheel", and a few others.

Got to play at the octagon one they have in Bellville, at the Austin County Fairgrounds, 20 years ago.

Sengelman's re-opened in Shulenburg a few years ago, but I haven't heard if it's still going.
Saw "Wayne the Train" Hancock, and went to a Sunday Polka dance there.
Guess I should google that one.

Saw  "Two Tons of Steel" at John T Floore's country store in Helotes.

Not sure if the Broken Spoke in Austin qualifies, but we've been there, too.
It should, the dance floor is built that way, with picnic tables on the sides, and the dance floor in the middle, a little like Gruene Hall.

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