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| 3/10/2009 9:27:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article
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Early arrivals to the community folk dance waltz around the floor of the Skamokawa Grange Hall Friday night.
Photos by Damian Mulinix/Observer photojournalist |
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| Square dance caller Paul
Silveria looks out over the
30-plus dancers assembled
in the Skamokawa Grange Hall Friday night during a
community folk dance. Silveria called the dance moves to music
performed by his partners Caitlin Daum on fiddle and Curt Alsobrook on guitar. |
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Square dances, Circle of friends
KAMOKAWA - The old-time sounds felt right at home in the old-time setting of the Skamokawa Grange Hall Friday night as men, women and children took to the wide-open floor of the building for square dances and waltzes.
For a couple bucks at the door young and old were treated to bluegrass-style music by a trio of performers from Portland who have become crowd favorites at country dances at the Netel Grange in Oregon. After teaching each new dance to the group, Paul Silveria called the moves while his band of Caitlin Daum and Kurt Alsobrook supplied the rhythm. More than 30 filled the room that has seen some renewed life in recent years. The event itself was a fundraiser for the recently revived Grange.
In 2006 the doors of the venerable community building reopened and was the site of the first Grange meeting in 10 years after the flooding of 1996 closed the establishment. Thanks to community volunteers and some much-needed structural upgrades the building is once again the home to not only the fraternal organization, which is deeply entrenched in the history of the Grays River Valley, but is also the place to find more and more events designed to invite the community in. Even new record setting flooding in January could do little to hold back the enthusiasm of the organization on its quest to be a vital part of the community once more.
"As we head into our second year, we look forward filling this hall with music and dances, forums and fundraisers, and anticipate having a pretty good time doing it!" says the Grange Web site.
Skamokawa Grange meetings are held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, 7:30 p.m., at the Grange Hall, and they welcome guests to come and see what they're all about.
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