2013 will be both a monumental and a sad year for the 100 Mile Twirlers square dance club, as members swing their partners for the last time under the 57-year-old banner.
While the group will celebrate its 57th birthday this year, what makes it bitter-sweet is that due to the general public’s ever-increasing lack of time and dwindling interest in square dancing, compounded by the advanced age of most current club members, the Twirlers will fold at the end of their season.
The end of the dance club will also mark the end of one of the area’s longest running annual events – the South Cariboo Square Dance Jamboree.
It has taken place for the past 56 years, and in its heyday in the mid-1960s, attracted up to 400 dancers who came from as far away at California and Alaska to do-si-do away the weekend.
Veteran square dance caller Dave Abbs from Lone Butte emceed the Jamboree for all of its years and has been calling for local clubs and dances for decades.
Calling came naturally to him because his father, Richard Abbs, called regularly at local dances where he also played fiddle in a band with Orville Gibson on drums, Albert Hinsche on accordion, Herman Craig on concertina and Spud Speirs on banjo.
“If dad didn’t feel like calling, he’d get me to do it. I’d just opened my mouth and let it spill out, and in those days, we didn’t have a microphone. We had a megaphone.”
Entertainment was limited back then, so every Saturday night there was a dance somewhere, and during the night, there would always be at least a few square dances worked in. Dave eventually became caller for all of the local dance clubs that sprang up through the years, and for a spurt, he was calling five nights a week.
He called frequently at Lone Butte Community Hall and at the Flying U Guest Ranch where he continues to call for guest dances on Wednesday nights in the summer.
Some of his favourite old-time dances, such as “Birdie in the Cage,” “Dip and Dive,” and “Ladies Join Your Lily White Hands,” have been dropped from modern dance lists, but he still likes to spring them on dancers once in a while, walking them through the steps.
Interest in square dancing grew steadily in the early 1950s, and in 1956, the 100 Mile Twirlers club formed with 25 members. They danced in each other’s homes in the beginning and then moved into the 100 Mile Community Hall where they stayed for several years.
In 1959, the club renovated a log house on the Abbs property in Lone Butte to serve as their clubhouse and dance hall, and it saw action into the 1980s.
Members, eager to keep up with the newest dances coming out of the United States, welcomed visits by part-time residents and dance enthusiasts Jack and Virginia Stollee from California who taught square dancing and round dancing when in the area.
The enterprising group hosted the first Jamboree in 1959 and Jack was the caller at the first three.
By 1966, the club was a going concern, with Dave now their full-time caller with his wife, Bev Abbs, usually by his side or on the dance floor.
Square dancing became almost rampant in the South Cariboo during the ’70s. The Lac la Hache Caribooters club had formed roughly at the same time as the Twirlers and it was going strong.
As membership in the Twirlers grew, people created offshoot clubs in their own communities and left the Twirlers. The Green Lake Rip-N-Snorters were one of them, coming together in 1972 with 29 members. The Lone Butte Rockers created their club in 1975 with 21 members.
The break-away clubs drained the Twirlers’ membership so much that in 1975, they were forced to fold.
Jan Baker of Horse Lake took an interest in square dancing in 1980 and joined the Rockers. The average age of members was about 30, and many had children who they toted along to dance with the adults.
Baker’s daughter, Sarah, was just a baby when she joined and Jan recalls bringing her to a Christmas dance and dancing the last part of the evening with the baby on her shoulder.
Sarah started dancing when she was about eight years old, which was the average age of most of the children who joined. At one time, Baker says, there were even enough teens to form their own square.
“They had a lot of fun. It’s too bad that kids now don’t get into it. It’s good exercise and it keeps you sharp – mentally and physically.”
Membership in the Rockers gradually thinned, and in 1985, they folded and some members, including Baker, joined the Twirlers who saw a rebirth that year.
Once again, the 100 Mile House club was strong, as were the other remaining clubs, and for a time, square dancers could dance five nights a week if they wanted, by club-hopping.
Baker says she was one of them and she has many fond memories, which include earning badges for dancing in the strangest of places. Her Snow Bunny badge came from square dancing on snowshoes and she earned her Ice Worm badge for dancing on frozen Green Lake. She also twirled in lake water and in the back of a cattle truck for other badges.
“We had badges for just about everything and that was one of the highlights for me.”
Now, she’s sad to see the Twirlers pull the pin.
“It’s kept me on my toes. This will be the end [of square dancing] for me.”
The end of the dance club will also mark the end of one of the area’s longest running annual events – the South Cariboo Square Dance Jamboree.
Since 1961, the Jamboree has been a joint effort of the Twirlers and the Lac la Hache Caribooters club.
The Caribooters would host the Friday night Get Acquainted Dance and a pancake breakfast and dance rounds on Sunday, while the Twirlers would host the main dance on Saturday night in 100 Mile Community Hall.
The Jamboree eventually outgrew the community hall and moved to the 100 Mile House Junior High School gymnasium where it saw many good years, but numbers gradually declined, and in 2010, it moved to the smaller 108 Mile Community Hall where the final Jamboree will be held on June 14-16.
While longtime club members don’t want to see the club fold, the Twirlers have already moved towards amalgamating with the Lac la Hache Caribooters.
Beginning this past fall, several members of the Caribooters drove to 100 Mile House weekly to dance with the Twirlers and keep the club alive. Winter road conditions are now keeping those people at home, so the Twirlers have suspended their weekly dances until at least March and possibly until April when their season normally ends.
Club president Audrey Hoeg will be moving away from the South Cariboo soon and says it will be up to members to find enough new recruits by fall if they want to see the club carry on.
“We need a number of enthusiastic people with time and energy. When you get older, you run out of steam, but it’s the same problem with other clubs. I really hate to see it completely fold and hope they get a group together to survive.”
