The Hokey Pokey

July 15, 1964

Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill, Kentucky. I'm back from 4-H Camp. What a blast! I hardly missed Hollyhill at all. Well, Dad and Wes some. Zella not at all. But she was looking pretty happy when I went to the newspaper office this morning. Guess she had a good week with me out of her hair. Cat came running to meet me. Of course, then he tried to scratch me when I reached down to pet him. He's been hanging around Zella too much. 

I danced at camp. That's pretty newsworthy. Leigh, that's Dad's sort of girlfriend, is always trying to get me to dance, but I have two left feet. She says that doesn't matter. That a person has the most fun dancing when they don't worry about anybody watching. 

Up to now, I just couldn't get into dancing. I'd rather ride my bike, but at camp, you had to dance. They had this big covered area and they played music every night. But it wasn't a couple thing, thank goodness. Everybody got in circles and then we did dances like the hokey pokey. Have you ever done the hokey pokey? It goes something like this. "You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out, you put your right hand in and you shake it all about. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around and that's what it's all about."

And you know what? That was fun. Everybody holding their hands over their heads and doing little spins. Wes and Dad and I did the Hokey Pokey in the press room when I got home. That was okay, but not as much fun as at camp. There was this guy named Riley at camp. He kept bumping into me when he was doing the turn around. I think he might have been doing it on purpose, but it didn't bother me. He was sort of cute. Maybe guys my age aren't so awful bad after all! At least not all of them. There were some others that I wouldn't have minded if they'd floated their canoes down the river and lost their paddles.

Anyway, maybe dancing's not so bad. Do you like to dance? Ever do the Hokey Pokey?