I DIDN'T DANCE WITH CLIFF

 

The Lawrence Welk show has been on the air for more than 50 years, but the music is still magnificent, heart warming - good for the health in these times full of noise and ugliness.

 

Can you remember seeing senior citizens dancing together to beautiful music? They did at that time. They did at the Lawrence Welk shows. After all these decades, we can still experience the beauty of the music and the joy of seeing people dancing together.

 

I didn't dance with Cliff - much to my regret. I felt awkward and he was such a beautiful dancer. A prize winning ballroom dancer. He even walked like a dancer. So I would tell him to dance with Alma Mia Petrides D'Allaire Kotsos, coat check lady at The Astor Lounge on St. Catherine Street West (across from the T. Eaton department store) where Cliff played the piano.

 

Alma had been a vaudeville performer and she was a graceful dancer. So I sat at my table and watched Cliff dance with Alma Mia. I sang with my beloved all the time - at work and at home, day and night, but I regret very much I did not have the confidence to dance with him.

 

It is hard for me to watch the Lawrence Welk show. The music tears at my heartstrings. The memories, still so vivid, come alive when I hear those songs. Cliff has been gone for twenty-one years now. Every love song was our love song. I remember the lyrics to almost every one of them. And I long for Cliff constantly. It seems I was in his arms only yesterday.