Hi y'all, Does anyone know of ongoing contras on the North coast? Arcata/Eureka? The closest things I've found are 3 hours away in Oregon in and Ukiah, and I don't have a car pool. Anyone? Please contact me off-list if you are between NorHum and the Oregon or Ukiah dances, and are interested in trying to set up a car pool. I was active on this list at one time as a newbie caller in Memphis. After moving a few times and a couple more children born, I just don't have enough free time to continue that hobby, but sadly, there is no local contra dance here that I've been able to find. Gmail quit sorting my callers mail into a separate folder for some unknown reason, or I'd never have thought to bother this list with the question. The barn dances I've attended in Arcata are packed with non/newbie dancers, beer is sold, and there is no teaching, not even the names of standard moves taught in many cases, LONG walk-thrus repeated 2x but hardly any actual calling, often no room for a do si-do (much less spinning) because the lines are so full. Squares and traditional dances with long inactive periods. Our Folklife society is very active but I am just an outsider who is critical of the way things are and who doesn't have time to call- I can tell you if I came into some money I'd be trying to organize a contra weekend up here. I gave some contra cards to my favorite local caller but she hasn't done aught with them yet, and that doesn't address the problems of packed dance halls, tipsy college kids who don't know how to share weight, and no teaching. ~Alison Murphy crunchy.mama.murphy(a)gmail.com _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net