4-H Dance

Tonight we attended the 4-H dance at the Shawano County Fair. It is a good chance for all the 4-H families to have a good time dancing or watching the youth dance. Right in the same coliseum in which they marched their cows the youth, young and old, danced.

There is something basically good and healthy about rural communities, even when all are not farm families, like my son and his family. They live in a rural community across the road from a family dairy farm but share an interest with the children on the farm for video games, showing cars and dancing.

The dance tonight reminded me of the two years when we lived in Philadelphia when my two sons were small. Children of all ages, small children and teens, played on the narrow streets of the row houses in the working class neighborhood where we lived. Like the 4-H dance, all the youth, young and old, mixed and played together.

Tonight two families that suffered devastating illnesses last year came forth to thank family and friends for the money raised at last year’s dance as well as for all the prayers and aid the community gave. Tonight another family was named as the recipient of the money raised by tonight’s raffles.

When we lived in Philadelphia in the 70’s one of the neighboring families in a row house on our block had a fire and lost a son. The neighboring families all came together to the aid of the family that was suffering a loss of home and family.

Rural or urban, the basic instincts of people who live in community are to come together in times of play and distress.

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