When my friend Kate suggested that we take country line dance lessons, I was less than eager. I was not a fan of country music. As Kate is so eager to point out, I am the one who said, at the height of his popularity, "Garth Brooks should be shot." I imagine it was my tiredness of seeing his face plastered everywhere that caused that remark.

Against my better judgement, I accompanied Kate to a lesson at what was then called Murphy's Country Palace, a dive-y bar in East Baltimore. I brought my ballroom dance partner along for the ride. Lucky decision that was, for it was couples lesson night. He and I took the lesson, which was for some confounded arm position for the two step which soon reduced us to human pretzels. And without the fun of a Twister mat. Later, we jumped in and tried a dance called the El Paso, a cha-cha couples dance. The song we danced to was "Neon Moon", by Brooks and Dunn.

Kate and I soon became addicted to dancing. We went to the Country Palace several times a week. Back in those days, they had live music Thursday through Sunday. More often than not, the Four by Four Band was playing. They seemed to understand the needs of the dancer, for they counted off each song, and even told us what dances might be done to it. We became "groupies", that is, we began to follow the band to gigs other than those at the Palace.