SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
When either Joanne or I went on a vacation, the other partner took over all the classes. I remember one day I instructed and danced four classes – I usually only danced two classes per day! After the third class, I wasn’t sure I had the energy left to do one more class – but I must have gotten a second wind, and flew through it!
At one point Joanne told me that her students didn’t like me – the way I did the routines. Joanne and I had a very different way of instructing the dances. As it turned out, my students didn’t like Joanne, either! So the next time I taught one of her classes, I told them that, because Joanne and I were so different – I asked her students to “listen with your good ear, and I’ll try to be clearer with my instructions.” By the end of the time I filled in for Joanne, we were all okay with each other.
I remember one of Joanne’s students – who was a friend of mine from our church – dancing with a cast on her foot! She’d had bone spur on her heel and had surgery to remove it. She said the cast just gave her extra weight to pull around, and she thought it just gave her more intense exercise! Never saw anything like it! She was able to keep up with the class, too.
In this particular type of aerobic dancing, we always started the routine on the right foot. I didn’t find anything unusual about that. However, there was one student of mine who just really had a hard time with the steps. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was, nor how to help her…until she approached me one time with “were you ever in the marching band?” That solved the problem – marching bands always start on the left foot. You know…”left…left…left right left…”
There was one time when I was holding a class in the gym – and the power went out. I had my boom box plugged into the wall unit, so that was a problem. However, There was a door from the gym into a small “store” within the same building. So I just yelled for the ladies to keep either jogging in place or doing some of the steps, and I ran to the store and purchased some batteries for my box. I was able to get them into the box and start up the routine essentially where I left off.
And along that vein – Joanne taught one of her classes in a small gym in another part of the base. She said she thought the gym manager didn’t want her classes held there, so she was convinced he turned off the power every single class. So when I filled in for her there, I was ready! I had the batteries in my boom box, and when the power went off, I just unplugged the power cord from the box and continued on with the batteries. I don’t think the manager was very happy with me!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 