Katydids Square Dance Club
Club
History
Past callers were Ed Sanders
(1961-1962), Kenny
Steen (1962-1978), Bill Davis (1978-1995),
Harold Fleeman (1995-2005), and Jim Osborne (2005-2023).
Come back to 1961 and a square dance club
called the Twirling Sands.
Named after the club caller Ed Sanders, the
club met on Thursday nights.
Several members were having difficulty attending on a
regular basis, so they
decided to form a Friday night club.
The group looked around for a place to
dance. The clubhouse at Bowers Park in
Santa Clara was available on Friday nights. One of the
Twirling Sands' founders
and members, Kenny Steen, had recently
graduated from callers' school and
had started calling at area dances. Soon he was
recruited to call. They elected
a slate of officers, held their first class of seven
squares and were on their
way to official clubdom. After the class graduated and
another slate of officers
was elected, the members decided to make it "legal"
with a club name and logo.
How does Moonlighter, Crazy Crickets
or Cute Cats sound?
Picture this: a warm summer night, sitting
in the park, folks discussing
possible club names and suddenly a shrill scream! Lorraine
Willes with the
"never-out-of-place" hairdo jumped up and was
frantically pulling at her hair. A
huge insect had fallen from the tree into her hair. "Katydid"
was the
scream and a club name was born.
1961 is when the group started dancing. 1962
is the official date of the
club's formation when the bylaws was adopted, a club
name and logo were selected
and the club was registered with "official" square
dancing organizations.
Unfortunately the Katydids folded in June 2023.
Lloyd@Darknell.com