Twist and shout!

She says:

Do you know what last Saturday was? It was the date of the third annual Fabulous 50’s Car Show and Sock Hop in Wauconda! For those of you who are regular readers, that will likely bring back memories of the column we wrote on our visit there last year – it was our favourite weekend from last summer. Well we had even more fun this year!

The landscape south of Osoyoos is truly a remote farm area, and it appears even more desolate once you head off the main highway. We had the feeling we were driving through the movie set of “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”, amidst the scrub pines and dusty rolling hills. It is a strange sort of beauty, this desert landscape but breathtaking nonetheless. We tapped our feet to the swing music playing in the car and began our trip into another world...

There was not much traffic on the road, but we were familiar with the route this year so Martin drove with confidence. When we pulled into the café slash post office slash country store, the lady at the store counter said almost immediately, “I bet I know why you are here”. Perhaps she saw our plates or perhaps in just not recognizing us she understood we must be there for the big event. I proudly told her we were coming back for our second sock hop, and bringing one more attendee. Martin’s daughter, Chloae, had practiced swing dancing in school P.E. classes this year so she was pumped to show off her stuff! I dutifully bought a bottle of Dr. Pepper (what else would you drink if you were headed to a sock hop?!) and off we went.

The car show was well attended this year too – more cars, and more from Canada (maybe they read our column?). The organizers recognized us as “that couple from Canada that wrote the article” and shook our hands. It was such a heartwarming feeling to know that we were now part of this little “community” – the die-hards that come to share in the spirit of days gone by.

This year I not only sampled the pie the Women’s Club made, but I also bought their cookbook. Ellie Sue, one of the longest standing members in the club, autographed my copy! And Martin searched out the lady who made the fantastic apricot pie we tasted – we are hoping she sends us her recipe.

We headed back to our hotel room to change for the dance, and enjoyed dinner at Esther’s Mexican Restaurant in the town of Republic. (There are many Mexican orchard workers that head north as the summer progresses – maybe one of them opened the restaurant??) It was a good thing we had a hearty meal as we sure worked off calories on the dance floor! The crowd was again quite big, but there was room enough for all to dance and everyone had a smile. I saw young teens doing twists and turns that made them look like they were made of rubber and I saw a 71 year old lady who danced circles around me – all of it out in the middle of nowhere, with all of us thinking, “It’s too bad there aren’t more of these happening in the world”. There was one family who had a reunion going on and they were all there, from the young boys playing outside in the grass to the young women wearing their Mom’s vintage outfits to Mom herself, decked out in saddle shoes, a pleated skirt and sweater set. One of her daughters was wearing her Prom dress from 1957!

At the end of the night we said goodbye to our friends and told them we would see them again next year. If you would like to join us, you are more than welcome to come! Check out their website if you need to buy a poodle skirt or bowling shirt, as they have great links.

Sockhop

He says:

This year I had so much fun, as Chloae and I had never really danced that much together before, so this was truly special for me. (The last time we really danced was at my wedding to Kristin, when she was 5). We were swinging to oldies and twisting together like a scene out of Pulp Fiction.

During the night, we got a chance to meet some of the local crowd this time and that was pretty nice too. Chloae got a chance to get asked to dance by a young 6 foot 5 cowboy and she did really well. I was very proud of her it’s not necessarily easy to go dancing with a stranger. Although the USA is in a recession and people are losing jobs left and right, the people were extremely welcoming.

This very nice lady mentioned to us her favorite place in the area to have lunch. It’s a small resort and a small restaurant near a beautiful lake - a great place to eat lunch. On our way back we searched for that lake and stopped at this tiny restaurant. It was a very, very, very rustic shack in the middle of the forest. We walked in and through the restaurant onto the patio and wow what a view - the patio/terrace was overlooking a really stunning trout lake. While we were waiting for our food, a few trout came out of the lake thanks to the few fishermen on the dock. The waitress that served us was absolutely fantastic and fit perfectly in that majestic rustic décor. I really mean the word waitress in this case because she was everything you would imagine of a diner waitress: rude but polite, direct but subtle and amazingly organized. The food was exactly what I had expected once I saw the inside of the restaurant, very tasty without any frou-frou. Homemade French fries (freedom fries) that tasted like real potatoes and a sandwich that was assembled the way Paul Bocuse would assemble a BLT, just perfectly toasted with the right amount of mayo! Truly it was a good meal served by an artistic, witty, amusing waitress.

We liked the place so much that we got out and reserved two nights for next year in one of the rustic chalets overlooking the lake. When we go back to the Sock Hop, I am planning on doing some fly fishing and catching some trout during our stay at the resort.

What a fun weekend!

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.