On 25/09/2007 Patricia Long wrote: > I think Mike is right about the dance we remember from Stromness > Academy. Pride of Erin sounds right and it is a waltz, not the more > energetic schottische. Incidentally, in the Channel Five series about > pupils from the North Isles going to Kirkwall Grammar School I was > entertained to see that the pupils are just as unenthusiastic as we > were about dancing lessons. The teacher was assuring them that asking > someone to dance with them didn't mean you wanted to marry them, just > that you wanted a dance. His reluctant pupils then generally held > their partners at arms-length. Dances in Stromness in my boyhood were a bit different from today. Public dances were held in the Town Hall at the bottom of Hellihole. Men sat on one side of the room, the women on the other. When the band leader/M.C. announced the next dance there was either a stampede across the floor by the men to grab a partner or they would all disappear out the doors to take fortifying drinks from half-bottles discreetly concealed about their persons :-) Pure savages! Our dance teacher at Stromness Academy was also our PE teacher - I was never any use at either! -- Mike Clouston