“Ballroom”

 

 

They brought the girls in buggies and on foot

 

To dance at Mrs. Sloan’s, where she instructs.

 

From fall to spring they brought them twice a month

 

In dazzling party shoes and party frocks.

 

 

And Mrs. Sloan would greet them on the threshold

 

And introduce them to the little boys.

 

Then toy couples whirled upon the dance-floor

 

Delightfully increasing in their poise.

 

 

Then they came in cars, in Model-T's,

 

In Buicks, Dodges, Cadillacs, Corvairs.

 

And some I brought myself, five at a time,

 

Sandra, Beth, Dianne, Celeste, and Claire.

 

 

They talked about the boys going home

 

And laid their plots in charity and charm.

 

They learned to flirt and flee at Mrs. Sloan’s

 

And give a graceful form to gaiety.

 

 

They waltzed at Mrs. Sloan’s for fifty winters

 

And lingered on her lawn in first romance.

 

So homage to this lady, grand and gracious,

 

Who taught three generations how to dance.

                       Ennis Rees