Dinner-Dance

Next up after Mass were dinner and dancing at the Radisson Fort George Hotel.

Antonia Noguera; Carli Scott; Daphne Mena, née Hoy; Egzine McFoy; Elena van Leer, née Mendoza; Eloisa Bradley; Grace Pate, née Balderamos; Ina Retreage, née Boyd; Jenny Lizama, née Castillo; Joan Overly, née Rivero; Joyce Perdomo, née Gough; Joy Tatum-Haylock; Joy Yorke; Ligia Alpuche, née Gómez; María Scott, née Villanueva; Marta Woods, née Ordóñez; Ruby Gillett, née Vásquez.

The room reserved for us was in their Executive Wing, across from the main hotel building in what used to be the Villa Hotel. It had been decorated earlier that afternoon by Ruby and her daughter, Ina and her daughter, María, and Carli and her husband. Aqua and white streamers and bows festooned the dancing area and the bar; silver streamers, bows, and 25′ s decorated the dining area.

Dinner was the best attended of the reunion activities. We had plenty of time before the meal to continue to catch up with our classmates, pose for pictures, and try to remember what name from our past went with each forgotten but still familiar face. Cameras were plentiful; as some of us chatted, others snapped photos. Sometimes the photographers caught us unawares; sometimes they asked us to pose. After many classmates had arrived at the hotel, we delegated cameras to husbands and friends and gathered for a group picture under a banner proclaiming us to be SCA Class of’ 69. So many people where taking pictures that we weren’t quite sure where to look or when to smile. But we trusted that, with all those flashes going off, someone must be getting good shots.

Unfortunately, we weren’t entirely organized about when we took group photos. We were so eager for pictures before dinner that we took them before everyone had arrived. And by the time we took another group shot after dinner, a few of our party had already left. So we never managed to get everyone who came to the dinner in one picture; we missed Daphne both times.

When dinnertime arrived, we took our places at the tables. The meal started with a garden salad. For the main course, saffron rice and a steamed-vegetable medley complemented the tasty roast chicken with creamy Dijon mustard and mushroom sauce. The dessert was either a cake or cheese cake, depending on when you were served. (We’re not sure whether the hotel had planned two desserts or they ran out of the cake and filled in with the cheese cake.)

As we were finishing the meal, the music began — lively and with a predominantly Caribbean beat. Most of the music came from a computerized keyboard that provided background accompaniment worthy of a small band. Two singers alternated, with songs in Garifuna, Spanish, Creole, and perhaps English. From time to time, a saxophone player joined in. We sat listening and tapping our feet; when they switched to slower songs, several couples got up to dance. We joked about the fact that the young musicians had to readjust their rhythms for us “old folks.”

Most of us “girls” danced enthusiastically and energetically to a rousing Punta Rock number. Initially we scattered across the dance floor in groups of two and three; gradually we formed a circle. Each took her turn dancing in the center of the circle, some eagerly, some reluctantly, while the others danced around the outside. When the current solo dancer made her way back to the circle of dancers, she was replaced in the center by whoever was on her left.

After watching this interchange of “lead dancer” progress around the circle, Egzine walked purposefully up to the dancers, then burst into the center of the circle. She danced up a storm and the crowd went wild watching and cheering her on. When she had shown the rest of us the real Punta, Egzine left the circle and walked calmly back to her table leaving us amateurs to finish the dance.

The party wound down such that the last revellers had left by midnight. Most of us headed home, but a few hearty souls decided to continue their celebration at the Bellevue. Ruby and Joyce reported the next day that they left the Bellevue shortly after they arrived — sitting in a smoke-filled bar with loud music isn’t as much fun as it used to be.