Day 8, January 8, 2013, a.m.

 

Good Morning! It’s Monday and I’ve been away from home for over a full week. It’s been good to settle in one place for a couple of days. Thinking I might stay here one more night. Don’t feel like schlepping my stuff to another hotel and I do want to stay in Charleston for another couple of days. There is certainly good food here.

Last evening I again went to that fabulous restaurant on the 15^th floor. I’d been calling it the 15^th floor then realized that hotels don’t have a floor 13, so even though the real 13^th floor is called the 14^th, should I say the restaurant is 14 or 15? Am I babbling? Anyway, you get the drift.

On Sunday nights, they have a happy hour in the lounge until 8 p.m. with a buffet for $3.75. I’d had breakfast and lunch and didn’t need a big meal, so that would work for me. A DJ was set up near the buffet table, so I headed to the back where it would be quieter. The place was definitely more crowded than the previous night. I ordered a Mai Tai and got out my book to write.

The buffet had a variety of cheeses, sliced ham and turkey, little cocktail wieners and meatballs, sliced tomato and some of that wonderful potato salad like I had at lunch. I took some of the latter and a few meatballs. It was hard to think of anything to write when the views out the window were so distracting.

The hotel’s restaurant is open to the public and it wasn’t long until almost every seat was taken. I swapped places with a bigger party to let them sit at the end. They admitted they were loud, but they sounded like they were having so much fun. They said they hadn’t been here before and this was going to be their new hang out spot. This place would certainly be my hang out had I friends here to hang out with!

What I liked about this place, besides the view and the food, was that most of these people were all, I would guess over 40 at least. Maybe the majority was even over 55. The DJ was playing blues. I kept looking out the window, watching the night advance, lights come on over the city, dotted vehicle lights moving along the highways, and waiting for the full moon to rise when I noticed the reflections in the windows down the far end were moving. People were dancing! I watched closer.

These were the older people and it looked like they were doing a kind of foxtrot or cha cha. I was really impressed. It dawned on me that a lot of these people knew each other. One of the women whom I’d given my previous spot up for came by and asked if I was watching them doing the shag. She said to especially watch the guy with the white hair who was over 70. She explained that the shag is unique to South Carolina. I didn’t know if she was joking. The only thing I’d heard was that a shag was a rug or… something else to do.

Then I heard the bartender tell a patron that this was Sunday Night Shag Night. I tried watching the dancers more closely from what I could see in the window reflections. Were they doing something like “Dirty Dancing?”

No, it really did look like cha cha or foxtrot with the guy twirling his lady from time to time. This wasn’t modern dancing; the partners held hands and were totally dancing with one another. It seemed they could do these steps to any song. The camaraderie, laughter, and enjoyment were felt by all and there were smiles all around. I was even nodding my head and tapping foot of fingers to the music. This was one time I wish I had a partner who would dance with me.

Like the hotel on the edge of the city, I felt I was present with the crowd and yet, I was not PART OF the action. As it is with me so often, I sit on the outskirts alone, just observing. It almost feels I am in a bubble and time goes on around me, but I am not allowed to participate.

The DJ didn’t play just one genre of music, he played a variety and even with the more modern songs, people were dancing. I guess shag can be done to any kind of music. What fun! There was even one tall, skinny, bent older man wearing a funny hat to everyone else’s kind of looking nice. (Not dressed up, but wearing good clothes and yes, some men were wearing suits.) He didn’t seem to be able to move a lot, but he was up there and danced with more than one woman.

Finally, the wolf moon rose over the city of Charleston. I took a couple of photographs and headed back to my room.