Two Books, One Dance

         When I used to go camping with my sister Pat, we would both become constipated. We’d stay active all day, hiking, tossing the Frisbee, or sometimes swimming. We included as many fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet as our cooler would accommodate. We drank plenty of water. Yet each vacation in our tent in the woods, we would moan and groan as our bowels came to a screeching halt. On one such camping trip, after Pat had had success, she came out of the outhouse dancing.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I am doing the happy dance, because I went poo,” she sang out, still skipping and hopping with glee. The happy dance became the most important reportable event during any of our travels.

Many years and many happy dances later, I took it to Africa. My daughter instantly knew one morning what had happened when I came back from the choo with a spring in my step and a wiggle in my hips. She had to share it with one of the other girls on the spot. Soon all the girls were wondering if they would be the next one to do the “dance.”

Against my best judgment, I explained it to the rest of the team. Soon everyone was hoping to do the happy dance, rather a challenge when squatting over a hole within a crude, canvas structure without a door and open to the blue sky above.

I’ve started sharing excerpts and thoughts from some of my earlier works. “A Time For Every Purpose Under Heaven” was the first book I wrote and published. I think, or at least I hope, that my writing skills have improved since 2012.

Though it could be seen as being in poor taste by some, this particular passage came to mind today as I have been working on my newest memoir. Titled “Holding All the Aces”, it is a tribute to my amazing sister Pat, the one who initiated the Happy Dance over forty years ago.

One other really memorable thing came out of the first trip with the new popup camper back in 1997. The now world-famous Happy Dance. 

 

Who knew something so stupid from my early years would be carried with me from a campground in northern Wisconsin to Kenya, Africa?

If you haven’t read “A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven” it is still available on Amazon.com. And watch for more information on “Holding All the Aces” over the next few months. Chris