She Loves to Dance

We have a lot of gourds at Papa's Pumpkin Patch, and this year, we had a wheelbarrow full of dried birdhouse gourds from last season. The birdhouses are up to a foot long and a bit like a genie bottle with a wider top, a narrow neck and a full, round bottom. After a year of drying and sitting, these over-sized rattles are ugly, too. A good sanding and a coat of paint are definitely in order.

Several days ago a young city girl walked up to the wheelbarrow. She was about 10 or 11 and I know she was a city girl because she came to Papa's in pink shorts and flip flops. At first she was afraid to touch the ugly rattles, holding her hands together on her chest like the gourds might jump up and bite her.

Within a couple of minutes, she'd found her courage and picked one up. In so doing, she heard the rattle of the seeds (now dried) inside. Say no more. The sales area of Papa's Pumpkin Patch became her stage and she was ready to dance.

Our young diva put a new-found instrument in each hand, stepped to one side in a sort of sumo squat position, raised the gourds over her head and did a "shake-a, shake-a, shake-a" to the right. Then she repeated the dance move to her left. She spun around in her flip flops, whipped her blond hair over her shoulders, and performed everything once again.

She finished, set the birdhouse gourds back in the wheelbarrow and returned to the pumpkin patch for more fun.

We could hardly contain our laughter. And we decided she loves to dance.

See you soon,

Papa