October 2025

Saturday 4th October - Forget Me Not Charity Dance - Barbara and Maggie, two of our members, organised a dance to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society. Neil Whiston kindly agreed to call the dance for free with A1 and A2 in the afternoon followed by Mainstream and Plus in the evening. More than 20 Waggoners attended the dance.

Monday 6th October - Harvest Hoedown - We were very pleased to welcome 9 of the friends, neighbours and relatives of our members who wanted to have a fun evening of Square Dancing with Trudy and Simon giving full instructions. We are not in a position to start teaching a new class at the moment, but are hoping that this will happen early in 2026.

Monday 13th October - We were back in the Dining Hall this week with two squares dancing to Trudy and Simon and with the usual guest tips from Penny and David. Penny was looking forward to tomorrow when she will be calling a club night for All Square at Zero in Milton Keynes.

Monday 20th October - There were three squares (and a few spares) dancing to Trudy and Simon this evening, with guest tips from Penny and David. Penny used the ever popular "Supercalifragislisticexpialidocious" for her singing call (with everyone joining in) while, for his patter, David said that he would be revisiting some of the lesser used moves and he had chosen "Fold" and "Cross Fold". One of Simon's singing calls had the ladies returning to their original partner without any progression which caused some consternation and led to some dancers trying to "fix" what wasn't broken!

At 9.00 p.m. we took a break for the Club's Annual General Meeting when the Chairman and Treasurer gave their annual reports and all the Committee positions were put to the members for election. As no one wanted to put themselves forward to join the Committee, all 2024 - 2025 Committee members were re-elected unopposed.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Saturday 25th October -  Nineteen Waggoners went to the Tudor Squares Afternoon Tea Dance at Warners End, Hemel Hempstead and danced to Trudy and Simon who were calling Mainstream and Plus. Before the dance a dress code of "red and white" had been suggested and most Waggoners turned up dressed in accordance with the memo! There were 5 or 6 squares for every tip and during the welcome break half way through the afternoon tea, coffee and cakes were served. Waggoners members generously supported the raffle and were rewarded when they won numerous prizes.

Monday 27th October - Simon called for us on his own this evening with guest tips from David and Penny. At the Tudor Squares dance on Saturday, Simon had called "Slide Thru" from different positions with which some of our newer dancers were unfamiliar so he revised this move and also "Dixie Style". During the evening it was remembered that Waggoners had started as a Caller-run club in November 1974 founded by Pete Skiffins, Beryl Skiffins (his wife), Eric Curtis and Freda (Eric's wife and Beryl's sister). In 1980 it was decided to turn Waggoners into a Committee- run Club and the first Committee meeting was held 45 years ago today on 27th October 1980. Our now Honorary Members, Pat and Mac, had been on the original Committee with Pat on the Committee continuously  since then, serving for many years as our Club Secretary.

As a change from the windfall apples which Trudy and Simon have been bringing in for us to share over the past few weeks, Peter G brought in some quince. This led to discussions about favourite recipes for what to do with them - quince jelly, quince jam etc.